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lizardgimpking · 1 year

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Book Review: The Living Dead (Daniel Kraus, George A. Romero)

Been wanting to read this for a good long while (Well, 2019 I guess). First, I had to wait for the standard annual wait between hardback and the more desirable/affordable paperback, then I had to wait for that to be a bit more affordable too. And, well...I also had to muster up the determination to actually read the damn thing, because this book is huge, and whilst not the biggest book out there by any means, it’s very easily the largest one I’ve read since I rekindled my love of books during the Covid lockdown in 2020.

And it is big for a reason, this is a true epic of a zombie novel, one that spans over a decade and follows a huge assortment of different characters in a wide array of different locations/circumstances. Across nearly 800 pages (In the paperback at least), this is the late, great George A. Romero’s definitive and final word on the ‘Dead’ series he created back in 1968. One that covers pretty much everything you could hope to cover on the subject, and it does so with his well known understanding that largely it’s less about the zombies and more about the blood-soaked mirror they hold up to the real world and the way humanity behaves within it. But still ripping guts out and all that fun stuff. The best of both worlds, I say! Now, obviously Romero himself didn’t write the novel, or at least he didn’t manage to finish it. Daniel Kraus was brought in to write it after the legendary director’s passing in 2017, using unfinished writing, notes and plans, and various loosely connected short stories by Romero to bring this final piece of work to life. Now sadly, and despite a chunky authors note at the end which is well worth the read, I remain unclear on how much of this was actually Romero’s work and how much has been improvised by Kraus, but all the same it ended up a mostly quite excellent read.

‘The Living Dead’ is broken up into three acts. More-so it’s broken up into two acts with a short bit of connective tissue between to bridge the large gap of years between start and end. The first act is set broadly in the first couple weeks of the ‘Dawn’, charting what could well be the first instance of someone coming back from the dead, and then exploring, through a wide array of perspectives and locations, how humanity responds to the end of the world as we know it. Amongst our collection of protagonists are a pair of pathologists, a woman living in a trailer park, a TV journalist and a Naval officer stationed on a aircraft carrier. To name but a few. Needless to say all their differing locations, ages and perspectives lead to a multitude of different tones and scales. With the Naval element providing the kind of bombastic insanity that would’ve likely never made it to the big screen for budgetary/content reasons, whilst the pathologist thread is more intimate and sombre. The main things connecting all these stories, bar some loose shared elements, is both the viscerally described and brutal nature of the violence that ensues, and the way in which both modern American life, and the concept of death and undeath, are explored in both sociopolitical and philosophical contexts. There’s a lot of ‘evil phone bad’ kinda stuff that didn’t quite work for me, but beyond that it’s all quite engaging, and turns the novel into as much of a grim reflection on human nature, in all its highs and lows, in addition to faith and class/race division, as it is a blood and guts zombie epic. Which is exactly what Romero’s ‘Dead’ films were like at their absolute finest. The second act, which I won’t spoil the grander details of, takes place over a decade after the dead rose, and sees several of the previously established characters ending up in the same location. In my opinion, this act is where the novel gets the most wild and interesting with its zombie elements. Again, it’s best left discovering yourself, but there’s certainly a lot more to all of this than just zombies munching on legs and limbs, and this more nuanced and elaborate take on the undead, again, feeds into the politically charged and ultimately pessimistic vibes of the overall story.

And it is a mostly quite grim read. If you aren’t into gore, even when written down on paper, this isn’t the book for you. If you’re looking for something that will raise your spirits or offer happy endings...you clearly haven’t watched Romero’s previous works in the genre, that much is certain. This is a bleak and brutal epic that questions humanities role on the Earth, and whether or not they can ever ultimately turn around the sinking ship that is modern civilisation into something better for both us, and the planet. There’s a lot of heavy, existential themes to contend with, so if you’re just looking for a bit of spooky fun, this ain’t gonna do it for you. Especially given its titanic length. Personally, I found it all quite fascinating and gripping to read through. I was really worried before starting that this was going to be a slog...it’s a huge book, and if a huge book isn’t hooking you in, then you’re going to be stuck on it for a long time. Fortunately I enjoyed it a lot, and whilst some elements maybe overextend into goofy or extremely contrived territory, as a lot of Romero’s works ultimately did, even those were at the very least still striking and entertaining.

This is certainly a much better final word on the zombie phenomena Romero himself created back in the 60s, as opposed to the, frankly, abysmal ‘Survival of the Dead’ from 2010, which sadly constituted his final cinematic work. With Romero’s ideas and Daniel Kraus’ strong and poetic writing, this is a must-read for any fan of the genre, and indeed any fan of the ‘Dead’ series of films. Some of it may come across as a little familiar (Shades of ‘World War Z’ for instance), as a lot of zombie material does these days, but ultimately the scope and final destination of the epic journey make this one of the definitive works of zombie media. Flawed in parts, but still highly recommended.

Read it or Leave it : Read It.

Reading Next (The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex)

#Books #Novels #Review #George A. Romero #Romero #Dawn of the Dead #Dead of the Dead #Daniel Kraus #Horror #Zombies #The Stickman #Reading

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strangertheory · 3 years

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I notice you corrected that other anon on Will being a creator, instead calling him a host. I'm just curious why you did that, as I agree with anon. Will definitely seems to have the power to create. He creates physical worlds other people can enter, like the Upside Down. You might say he didn't create his alters, but it's not normal practice for alters to walk around independent of the host body. That definitely feels like an offshoot of Will's ability to create.

I'm aware I'm an outlier and that my thoughts on this are not shared by most fans, even fans that find the DID theory to be plausible. But at this point in time my current theory and meta for Stranger Things that you will see me most often discussing here on my blog is that all supernatural events are taking place exclusively within the mind, within internal worlds and distorted metaphorical memories, or within an as-yet unrevealed other meta narrative such as a story-within-a-story. (Or both. I do like the theory that Stranger Things is a story being written by Mike.)

These days I am most often discussing my ideas about Stranger Things within the hypothetical of many scenes in the series taking place in internal worlds or memories that are distorted metaphorically or being revisited in a unique as-yet-unrevealed way. I personally do not presume that alters are walking around in the external world except when they are fronting (or coconscious together) in the body, or when they are interacting with each other within internal worlds that exist in their shared mind.

Maybe the best way to describe my current meta and theory is to say: what if Stranger Things could be a true story? What if we spend a lot of time in internal worlds? What if the entire story is about the way the mind can compartmentalize and process trauma and memories in a way that is unique and "strange" and then additionally also about the recovery and healing and happiness that can be experienced by those who have been through terrible, traumatic things?

I know that kaypeace21, for example, has her own different interpretations and theories regarding the events of the series, and I enjoy reading her ideas and blogposts even when we might not agree entirely. We don't always share the same theoretical ideas and focuses. Our blogs and our thoughts are often very different. I have an appreciation and interest in the theory that psychics are real in the Stranger Things universe (like in X-Men) and that the alters were brought out of the mind and into the external world as well, and I appreciate it as a hypothetical, but at this point in time my emphasis and focus on my blog is on my theory that significant parts of the show are in fact taking place in the mind of characters and not in the external world in the way that we might currently be assuming.

Telling a story from the perspective from within a DID System and its internal worlds rather than as an outside observer is a very compelling concept to me. Yes, I know many see this theory as pushing things "too far." But I see it as an interesting hypothetical within which the concept of internal worlds and memories and the internal workings of a DID System can be explored in a way that I haven't seen done very often in other media.

But to return to the question of why I prefer to refer to Will as a host and not as a "creator" or "the creator..."

Host is a great term that is specific to the context of the theory that we were discussing in the other ask.

I do not mean to be pedantic but I am trying to be consistent with how I present information and terminology so that anyone less familiar with DID can repeatedly see these terms used in relevant contexts over and over again and recognize the connection that I am drawing between DID and the Stranger Things meta that I discuss.

The other anon had used the phrase "outside their roles as creator or gatekeeper" in their message. Creator is a general word that has many different meanings depending on context and that is not a formally defined role within a DID System in the way that the word "gatekeeper" holds specific purpose and meaning as a term. The term "host" is concise and specific and encompasses the complexity of the role because it is the term widely used to describe that role in DID and is generally understood and accepted. I wanted to keep the use of terminology consistent.

I also find it useful to discuss Will as a "host" because this is a term that has been used for Will within Stranger Things' canon itself and which also further reinforces the theory that I am trying to explore as a valid meta. Consistently discussing Will as a "host" helps point to a term that connects Stranger Things and DID in the same way that discussing El as a "gatekeeper" helps connect Stranger Things and DID ("The gate. I opened it.")

I believe that the more often we use words in conversation, the more familiar they become to us and the more their meaning becomes present in our minds. Because DID is such an unfamiliar (and often misunderstood) topic to the majority of people, rather than choosing to distance my language from specific terminology used to discuss DID, I choose to repeatedly use these terms (alter, host, gatekeeper, protector, persecutor, etc.) to reinforce their meaning within not only the context of this specific Stranger Things meta but also their meaning and significance within discussions of DID in general.

I worry that if I begin to use terms that are non-specific (such as "creator") when talking about the DID theory that I risk muddling what I actually mean and, worse, possibly muddling what I'm trying to explain to those in my blog's audience who are unfamiliar with DID.

When a word exists that represents what I mean to say and that can also hopefully encourage increased understanding and interest in something, why not use that optimal word so that people can get more comfortable with understanding it rather than reach for a different, less-accurate word that in the past has caused some readers of my blog to misunderstand what the word "host" means when I use it?

I hope everyone who feels differently takes this answer to this Ask in good faith and understands my intentions are not to suggest that anyone who chooses to use different words is "wrong." Not at all. This is entirely about my comfort with my words and my blog and the approach I try to take in discussing this theory when I myself am engaged with this topic.

And if you are a member of a system yourself and you are reading this blogpost but you like thinking of hosts within your system as "creators" I think that's awesome and valid and I hope that you understand that nothing I have said in this blogpost is intended to speak over who you are and how you understand and describe your system. I'm simply intentionally using the term "host" as its used within Stranger Things and as its used in the general context of discussion of alter roles within DID Systems in general.

Thanks for asking, Anon. In summary, please take my preference for the term "host" as being specific to my desire to use terminology consistently on my blog to avoid confusion when I'm referring to very specific conditions such as DID that exist in the real world, and to encourage people to understand what I mean when I say the word "host" in the context of this theory.

I didn't mean to imply that describing Will as a creator is necessarily wrong per se, but rather that when done within the context of referring to El as a gatekeeper and within the context of DID system rolea that the word for Will's role is host and it gave me a brief opportunity to remind anyone reading the blogpost that Will, within this meta and theory, is a host.

#long post #complicated topic #please imagine me saying all of this while smiling and nodding and being grateful that you care about my thoughts and enjoy reading my blog #I am not seeking to give anyone a hard time for how they prefer to relate to Stranger Things or think about this meta #I just want to explain why I am so particular about what terms I use when talking about these theories

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ibijau · 4 years

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Worst engagement AU // on AO3

Nie Huaisang finds it's nice to have people who enjoy his company

(Part of this chapter had already been posted a while back for an ask about how the Jiang boys views nhs’s engagement. I’ve added to it and touched it up to fit the rest)

warning for canon typical underage drinking

It was so nerve wracking to stand up to Lan Xichen that as soon as he is out of view of his fiancé’s house, Nie Huaisang breaks into tears. He can’t decide if he regrets speaking so bluntly or not. He half wants to run back and go tell Lan Xichen he’s sorry, that he shouldn’t have said this, that he’ll be good again, that he’ll do his best.

He doesn’t.

He can’t . As he’s said, he’s tried that already and it was miserable. Everything good he’s gotten in life, he got by being bold and not caring for consequences. Everything from his dear nightingale, to Lan Wangji’s good opinion, and now the company of Jiang Wanyin and Wei Wuxian he got by doing what he wasn’t supposed to do.

He can’t grovel in front of Lan Xichen. Not now, and not ever again. Even if he’s crying now, even if he cries after every time they meet, as long as he stands strong in front of Lan Xichen then everything is fine. Besides, even if he’s sure that his behaviour will be reported to Lan Qiren and he will get a scolding for it, it was all worth it for the shock on Lan Xichen’s face. Just thinking back on it is enough to make Nie Huaisang chuckle through his tears.

Once he manages to calm down, Nie Huaisang dries the traces of his crying with his sleeves, puts on a smile, and returns to his cabin.

It’s a bit of a shock to find that Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian really stayed there and waited for him. Nie Huaisang assumed they would just return to their own cabin. Instead Wei Wuxian grins at him as if he’s truly happy to see him and waves his hand at him.

“We were starting to wonder if we should go rescue you!”

Nie Huaisang snorts as he closes the door behind him, but feels his heart beat a little faster. This is… nice. It might be selfish, but he likes the idea of his company being wanted.

“Wei gongzi, it was just a talk with my fiancé,” Nie Huaisang protests with a smile. “I was quite fine. We’ve decided that we should meet every so often, now that things are getting more concrete. He’ll be of age in just two years after all, and we might marry soon after.”

“Were you really fine?” Jiang Cheng asks, scowling at him. It seems that just his normal expression most of the time, so Nie Huaisang tries not to take it personally. At the same time, his eyes are probably a little red still from crying, so maybe Jiang Cheng is worried.

Nie Huaisang decides to laugh it off.

“Why wouldn’t I be? It really was just a small chat. But let’s talk about something more fun now, right?”

They don’t insist, but as they start discussing again an expedition to nearby Gusu to buy forbidden contraband to make their stay in the Cloud Recesses more fun, Nie Huaisang feels that everyone looks at him a little too much. He tells himself it’s just because he’s the only one who has really visited Gusu before while the others just passed through it on their way here (though Wei Wuxian did still manage to spot several interesting shops) but it might also be that he failed to hide how upset that chat with lan Xichen made him. He’ll have to hide it better in the future.

There’s no way of being sure that they’ll all leave him behind if they realise he’s not naturally as daring and bold as them, but it’s not a risk he wants to take.

After dinner that evening (boring, disgusting, bitter… Nie Huaisang is going to starve when he comes to live here permanently) and as they start heading back toward their cabins, Wei Wuxian grabs Nie Huaisang by the elbow and pulls him away from the other guest disciples. He’s grinning in a way that, in only a few days, Nie Huaisang has learned means he has a very awful idea to share.

“Nie gongzi, let’s trade tonight,” Wei Wuxian offers in a whisper. “We send our disciples to your cabin, and you come to ours for a bit of fun with me and Jiang Cheng.”

That breaks a number of rules, of course, and Nie Huaisang is already waiting for the fallout of his chat with lan Xichen.

“I’m not sure…”

“I am. Come on, it’ll be fun! Just bring some of those prints you’ve mentioned, alright?”

Nie Huaisang grins and gives in. Apparently, Sect Leader Jiang’s wife is a very strict woman, so it is nearly impossible for Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng to get their hands on that sort of pictures, and they get badly punished if any are found in their things. Finding release outside of dual cultivation is supposedly bad for the flow of spiritual energy, and madam Yu takes these things very seriously, especially with her son.

It makes Nie Huaisang very glad that he has so little spiritual energy himself. He can waste it if he likes, it won’t make much difference.

With this plan agreed on, they go to their separate cabins to prepare for the night. Nie Huaisang companions don’t seem too upset that the Jiang disciples are being dumped on them. If anything, they seem as excited by the perspective of an evening without their young master as Nie Huaisang is. It’s likely that both cabins will end up doing the same sort of things, drinking and looking at forbidden pictures, but at least this way young masters and disciples can all pretend that nothing inappropriate happened. As soon as he has everything he needs, Nie Huaisang leaves the cabin and heads for the Jiangs’ one.

It is impossibly thrilling to sit down with Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian, past curfew (forbidden), ready to spend the night in their cabin (forbidden), with some wine and those artful prints (both extremely forbidden). They’re all three sitting on blankets that they threw on the floor. Well, Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng are sitting, still clinging to some vague illusion of propriety, while Wei Wuxian is lounging without a care in the world, refilling everyone’s cup with wine as often as necessary.

Giving up on being good is the best idea that Nie Huaisang has ever had in his life, and he’s so glad he’s found people ready to encourage him on the path to fun. Getting to meet these two makes it almost worth the annoyance of another year in the proximity of Lan Xichen. If not for the weekly meetings ordered by Lan Qiren, then Nie Huaisang would be quite happy with this situation.

When Wei Wuxian reveals that along with the wine, he managed to smuggle in some candies, Nie Huaisang decides that this is worth putting up with Lan Xichen. This is going to be the very best year of his life.

That sentiment lasts until the second cup of wine.

“So, you and Lan Xichen really don’t get along, uh?” Wei Wuxian asks.

Instantly, Nie Huaisang tenses. Well, he should have guessed. It’s never about him. And they were there when Lan Xichen came to pick him up for that stupid meeting they’re supposed to have, and Nie Huaisang didn’t think to hide his annoyance, and it must have been obvious that he cried, and now Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian will realise they can’t reach Lan Xichen through him, and…

“You can never trust the nice ones,” Jiang Cheng grumbles. “The better the reputation, the worst they act in private. It’s the same with Jin Zixuan honestly. He acts all high and mighty around adults, but when there’s nobody to see he’s a pest.”

Nie Huaisang chuckles nervously and reaches for his fan, although he doesn’t open it yet. “Right. Your sister too is engaged, uh? To Jin Zixuan… I mean, at least he’s not too ugly, and he has good cultivation.”

Both Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian groan in annoyance.

“Shijie says the same!” Wei Wuxian complains, nearly spilling his wine. “She’s always trying to defend him, even though he made her cry last time he came to visit. He said she needed to improve her cultivation before they got married or it’d be embarrassing him. Can you believe that?”

“Peacock,” Jiang Cheng hisses. “Like he deserves her anyway.”

Nie Huaisang nods, and feels himself relax a little though he still fidgets with his fan.

“It’s not like she can help it,” he says carefully. “I’ve not met her, but Mingjue says whenever he came to Lotus Piers, she gave him the impression of a very nice girl, very polite. And he’s not the sort to just say something nice without meaning it.”

That, it turns out, is the best thing Nie Huaisang could ever have said. The instant they hear their sister praised, the other two beam at him as if he’s just told them they’ve reached immortality.

“Your brother is a man of great tastes,” Wei Wuxian proclaims, downing another cup of wine. “You know what? We should work on breaking the engagement between Shijie and that peacock, and see if she can’t marry your brother instead. That way she’ll get a good husband, and your sect gets a good alliance, and so you don’t need to marry some stuffy old Lan kid!”

“Wei gongzi, don’t go tempting me,” Nie Huaisang sighs. “I can’t start dreaming like that!”

Wei Wuxian laughs, and pour some more wine for all of them while Jiang Cheng, by far the one who’s had the least to drink, watches Nie Huaisang like a hawk.

“So it’s not just an impression, you don’t get along with Lan Xichen,” he says. “We’d heard some of the disciples who came here last year say it, but I figured maybe they just misunderstood.”

Nie Huaisang hesitates. This alliance between Qinghe Nie and Gusu Lan is important, and while Yunmeng Jiang is friendly now, they have their own alliance with Lanling Jin, who in turn everyone knows would never have the guts to turn against Qishan Wen. It’s important to make it look like Qinghe and Gusu have strong links, it’s important to make it seem like his future marriage is as certain as the rising sun and the winter snows.

If it ever reaches Nie Mingjue’s ears, Nie Huaisang will blame the wine. But he’s decided already that he was done pretending, and for this too he can take a leap of faith, show a little courage. Politics are politics but he likes Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian, who seem to like him back and… and it’d be nice to be pitied a little.

“Your sister isn’t the only one whose cultivation is deemed unsatisfactory,” he admits. “And of course, Lan gongzi isn’t wrong about me. I don’t have a great cultivation level.”

“But you have great porn,” Wei Wuxian retorts, as if somehow, that compensates the rest. “And you’re pretty fun to have around.”

“We wouldn’t have invited someone like Lan Xichen to come here,” Jiang Cheng agrees with a huff, as if it annoys him to admit that some people don’t, well, annoy him. “He’s got a good reputation for sure, and everyone admires him, but he doesn’t sound like someone you’d want to be friends with.”

Nie Huaisang grins, and sips on his wine to hide how giddy he is.

He’s really going to enjoy becoming friends with those two over the months to come.

#xisang #nie huaisang #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #mo dao zu shi #worst engagement au #jau writes #next installements might take a little more time as I need to decide on stuff + I want to write on Burn it Down again

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rsadelle · 3 years

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The best books I read in 2020

I read 167 books in 2020, which is a little more than one and a half times as many as I read in 2019. (I had a crisis of counting at one point when I read a string of novellas, but ultimately came down on the side of if I can check out the ebook from the library as a single volume, then it counts as a book for the purposes of my list.) Only ten of those are books I reread, which is a fairly low reread number/percentage for me. The large number of books I read this year made it extra difficult to narrow down a small number of the best ones, which is why this list is longer than in previous years. It is, in fact, long enough that I have put it behind a cut to spare your dash.

Top 11 fiction books/series I read for the first time in 2020

Bread Alone trilogy (Bread Alone, The Baker's Apprentice, and Baker's Blues) by Judith Ryan Hendricks - I so enjoyed this trilogy about bread baking and figuring out your life and building a home/community and love. I read it at the beginning of the pandemic, when everyone was baking bread, and it was one of those things I was sad to finish because I didn't want to leave the characters.

Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson - I have read a lot of suburban housewife with a secret books over the last couple of years. This was an excellent example of the genre with the good use of a thematic motif and a second secret reveal after you learn what you think is the biggest secret. Content notes: I had to skim a few chapters because of the large amount of weight and disordered eating content (which is relevant to the character), and there is sexual abuse of a young teenager by an adult as part of the story.

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin - This was such an interesting concept and done so well. It was one of the most popular books my sci fi book club read this year, and the New Yorker in our group said it was her favorite New York book ever. The most disappointing part of this book is that it's the first book in a trilogy and the other books haven't been published yet. Content notes: eldritch horror and realistic racism.

The Sci-Regency Series (My Fair Captain, The Englor Affair, My Regelence Rake, Diplomatic Relations, and My Highland Laird) by J.L. Langley - The delightfully ludicrous premise of this series is that there is a gay Regency society in space, which makes for some really fun romances. I've loved this series for over a decade, and I was thrilled to reread the first three books before reading the two new books that came out this summer. I recommend reading the novels in order, as there is an overarching plot involving the Intergalactic Navy that is interesting and ongoing without overshadowing the romances. Content note: these are on the erotica end of the romance spectrum, which means they have very explicit sex scenes. I wrote a lot more about this series in a Yuletide promo post comment.

The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo - I was so sad to finish this book! I have read a lot of commercial/literary fiction about families in the past few years, and this might be my favorite. I found the characters really compelling and enjoyed seeing their differing perspectives. I didn't want to leave this family.

Throne of Glass series (Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, Heir of Fire, Queen of Shadows, Empire of Storms, Tower of Dawn, and Kingdom of Ash) by Sarah J. Maas - This YA fantasy series shouldn't work given its constant escalation, and yet, somehow it does. I greatly enjoyed it, and I cried more than once at the last book. This is a series where I recommend not reading anything about future books until you've read all the books before them so you can enjoy the continual reveals. These are very much genre novels, and if you don't like the genre, these books will not be for you. Content note: there is a lot of genre-typical violence.

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai - I admit that I was mildly skeptical about this book given that what I knew about it was that it was a story about the AIDS epidemic where one of the two timelines is about a woman trying to reconnect with her daughter, but I ended up loving it. The two alternating timelines fit together beautifully, and I thought it did a good job of not eliding the horror of the AIDS epidemic experienced by the gay community in favor of the straight woman's experience. I do remain skeptical of how many awards it won; while it was a genuinely excellent book, I also know that awards bodies love dead queer people.

We Set the Dark on Fire and We Unleash the Merciless Storm by Tehlor Kay Mejia - I loved this YA dystopianish (more cultural class divide than apocalypse or singular villain in control) duology about queer women falling in love while working toward revolution. The world building was good, the plot was good, and the romance was good.

Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather - This novella about an order of nuns who travel through space in an organic slug-like spaceship was absolutely wonderful. It deals with issues of faith, purpose, central control, and doing what you can to make the world a better place.

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson - I loved this YA novel in a sort of Regency-ish setting about a girl who grew up in a library full of magic books and her dealings with some sorcerers, complete with a romance. Content note: attempted mental coercion and institutionalization.

The Wren Hunt and The Wickerlight by Mary Watson - This is a YA duology about rival druid groups in modern day Ireland. I found both books totally compelling with interesting druid politics and magic. It was also really interesting how well we get to see the worst of both sides of the rival druid groups in the two different books.

Top 5 books/series I read and then thought about a lot in 2020

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher - A friend recommended the author to me. This particularly book is a supernatural horror novel I don't necessarily recommend. However, I have continued to think about elements of it since I read it. (Before you @ me about the author's other work, this was the third of her books I read and the other two were in the more beloved fantasy novel genre.)

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal - I actually didn't like this book that much. We read it for a book club, and it had an interesting concept that wasn't super well executed. However, I have thought about elements of it a lot since then, particularly in comparison to some of the other sci fi I encountered this year.

Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - I don't know how much "I actively thought about these a lot" describes my actual experience of having read these, but given their popularity and the number of conversations I had about them, I can't omit them from this post entirely. I liked the first one once I figured out what kind of story it actually was, had absolutely no idea what was happening at any point in the second one, and discovered with both of them that I have a much more limited vocabulary than I thought, at least when it comes to death-related words. I am invested enough that I will read the third book when it comes out, but probably won't read any more of the author's work beyond that. If you want to know more about what I thought, I wrote a very spoilery post about them.

The Sixth World (Trail of Lightning and Storm of Locusts) by Rebecca Roanhorse - This is a pair of novels set in a post-apocalyptic world where there's a magically/divinely-erected wall around Dinétah (the Navajo lands). The worldbuilding and characters are so interesting, and it's a series where some of the details stuck with me and I would randomly think of them. I'm looking forward to reading one of her other books in a few months for my sci fi book club.

Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics by Mirabai Starr - This was one of two books about women mystics I read and disliked this year, and the more disappointing of the two as I'd heard an interview with the author that I found interesting. I continued to think about this one a lot in an angry, "and another thing!" way, which did help me articulate more of the things I dislike about new age-ish framing of "feminine" wisdom/divinity/knowledge.

Top 3 non-fiction books I read in 2020

The Vagina Bible: The vulva and the vagina - separating the myth from the medicine by Dr. Jen Gunter - This is probably better as a reference work than as a straight read-through, but it was interesting enough to read straight through. The book is deeply rooted in science and facts, and she has a whole chapter on "Vaginas and Vulvas in Transition" specifically about anatomy for trans people.

Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life - in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There) by Sarah Hurwitz - This is a useful, contemporary introduction to Judaism from someone who shares a lot of my values. The first half is an introduction to Jewish thought, while the second half focuses more on spirituality and practice. The book is part general introduction and part spiritual memoir. I found it deeply inspirational and I added it to a wish list of books I want to own copies of (I read it as a library ebook) because I would like to both reread it in hardcopy where I can easily flip back and forth and use it as a resource for further study and reading.

You Can Draw in 30 Days by Mark Kistler - You may remember that I wrote more about this when I originally finished reading the book. I found it a gentle, funny, helpful book to teach you the basics of drawing.

The 2 authors I read the most in 2020

Jennifer Lynne Barnes - I read fifteen of her books in three weeks in January, when I was still working full time, and a sixteenth after it was published later in the year. Her books are fast-read YA novels that are deeply engaging and generally have some sort of mystery element to them which may or may not involve family secrets. She has a tendency to write variations of the same characters, which meant that I enjoyed mentally mapping the characters from various books onto characters from other books. Also, her werewolf trilogy does one of my favorite werewolf story things that you almost never see (but it doesn't happen until the end of the first book, so I won't spoil it by telling you what it is). Many of her books involve violence, so heed the summaries or email/message me if you want some content notes.

Laura Lippman - I read nineteen of her books this year, eighteen novels and a non-fiction essay collection. She's an excellent mystery writer with a distinctive voice. The time I read four of her books in four days, I found myself thinking in her style. Even if I hadn't otherwise enjoyed My Life As A Villainess, her essay collection, it would have been worth reading just for the kicker on "The Thirty-First Stocking." Content note: her novels frequently involve violence or its aftermath.

#books #book rec

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robotslenderman · 4 years

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I have Thoughts on engaging bigots, inspired by this Reddit thread. Not the article itself, but a quote from it:

Before any attempt at “unity” [with Trump voters] can be made, there needs to be a reckoning, an acknowledgment that so many of Trump’s actions have been unconscionable and do not align with societal ideals that claim to value all life. Building bridges with people who share Trump’s views sends a clear message that you are willing to keep the peace at the expense of the dignity and well-being of those with less power and privilege.

This is key.

When an allo person tells me to be kind to aphobes, they are telling me that I should put myself through pain, humiliation, trauma and emotional abuse.

When a white person tells a PoC to be kind to racists, they're asking the PoC to put themselves through pain, humiliation, trauma and emotional abuse.

This goes for every majority that tells a minority it's their job to be kind to bigots.

This is not the minority's job.

It is the ally's job to do the emotional labour of working with the bigot with patience and understanding, with a caveat:

They must walk the line of doing it in a way that clearly condemns the bigotry and upholds the dignity of the minority they are defending.

What do you know? You can do BOTH! You can reach out and educate kindly AND do it in a way that supports minorities instead of enabling bigotry!

Make it clear what they're doing is not okay, but try to do it in a way that shows a little compassion, if only to avoid reinforcing their persecution complex so that they're more likely to change their minds over the long term. If only to avoid them seeking that same compassion from other bigots.

I am female.

I don't want allies to tell misogynists to go fuck themselves. I don't begrudge it from other women or myself, because we have to protect ourselves, but allies don't have that excuse.

The goal of a true ally is to root out bigotry, and nobody ever stopped being a bigot because they got shouted to death. By shouting down misogyny instead of disarming it, the ally is taking the easy way out and doing it in a way that reinforces it in the long term by reinforcing the misogynist's belief that they are being victimised. The ally is trying to make themselves look good at the expense of women.

We have the right to defend ourselves in whatever means we have to. Do not make the mistake of thinking that an ally attacking someone is at all the same.

This is a sin I have committed many times. But the truth is, unravelling bigotry and banishing it is long term work. The short term satisfaction of an ally telling a bigot to go fuck themselves is overshadowed by the fact that the bigot will seek out validation in places that are far more malicious to women than the ally.

"Hey, I understand you're worried a woman will falsely accuse you of rape, but in reality only a very small percentage of actual rapists are ever convicted, and a lot of rape survivors report being isolated and not believed."

This is a statement that does two things - it acknowledges the misogynist's genuine fear of the harm they perceive women to be capable of, which goes a long way, while defusing it with truth.

Will the bigot instantly stop being one? Of fucking course not. This is long term, this is hard work. It is exhausting, not rewarding. This is about planting a seed and reducing the necessity the bigot feels of seeking out other bigots for acknowledgement of their false fear. This shows the bigot that their opinion is not okay, but in a way that they are more likely to be responsive to.

That is a discussion that would traumatise women to have, or more likely reinforce existing trauma.

This is where allies come in. I am a minority in some ways, an ally in others. One thing we can do as allies is show the patience and understanding that would exhaust or traumatise minorities to have to display for themselves. That way, we can plant seeds that are more likely to come to fruition over the long term instead of feeding the feeling of persecution within the bigot.

But again - it must not come at the expense of the minority. If you show too much compassion or understanding you risk reinforcing their bigoted views. The intention is to show that yes, we acknowledge that you have are afraid, we are not ignoring your fear, but what you're doing is still not okay despite that fear.

I believe that most bigotry comes from fear and ignorance, not genuine malice. I don't think that most men who promote more men than women actually hate women or think we're incompetent, I think he does it because it's what he's been conditioned to do without thinking twice. I think he's been conditioned to be more critical of women than men, if you'll excuse my binary example. That's not hatred. That's just a problem he needs to fix.

But if another man shames him for hating women, does it help women more that that man now feels defensive? Or does it just make the "ally" feel better, feel morally superior, without actually putting in the work the ally could have done of showing the first man that he's promoting less capable people because he views women through a different lens he's been conditioned to have? The man who promoted the men over more capable women isn't reflecting on his actions, he's occupied by the fact someone thinks he's something he's not. That man "knows" he doesn't hate women, he just didn't think about what he's doing, and now he's being demonised for a motivation he truly doesn't have without being equipped with tools to dismantle his own biases.

I truly believe a lot of bigots have genuinely good intentions, but in the wrong direction. Many misogynists are genuinely afraid of us women and think they are truly doing the right thing by standing up for men, but their fault is in not sympathising with our fear. So when a man calmly explains rape statistics and how rare conviction for rape is to a misogynist afraid of women "crying rape", I appreciate it because he's defusing that fear in a way that shows that he wants to tackle the problem from his fear-based perspective without giving it enough understanding that the misogynist feels vindicated.

Let's say I'm in a group of people, and there's a misogynist and a male ally. The misogynist says something shitty.

If the male ally just tells the misogynist to go fuck himself and leave, it makes me afraid that the ally is just performing his allyship, that he just wants to look good to women. It makes me feel safer in the short term, yes - but am I really safer if that misogynist then goes to other misogynists and claims he's being victimised?

If the male ally says something like "hey, I understand that you (were just making a joke and wanted to make people laugh/are afraid that good fathers will lose their children to abusive mothers who will hurt the children/are worried your life will be ruined and you'll be helpless to stop it if a woman accuses you falsely of rape), but (your joke is really hurtful to women/this is caused by women being shoehorned into a role as mothers/many rape survivors say that they lost friends because people didn't believe them). I understand you had good intentions but what you said isn't okay and if you keep saying that then I don't want you to join us."

Then that accomplishes several things:

It validates the bigot's belief that they are someone with genuinely good intentions

It gives them a graceful "way out" of their bigotry, increasing the likelihood feel supported to bow out of it - "yeah, I did just want people to laugh but I guess it landed badly!" (Not great, but better than a double down.)

It shows support to women and upholds their dignity by acknowledging the remark's impact on them, and that the male ally isn't okay with it.

It makes the misogynist more likely to confide his misogyny in the future in someone who won't reinforce it, but will instead take it apart piece by piece without reinforcing any persecution complexes.

If the misogynist genuinely made a fuckup, they're not going to think that they're thought of as scum of the earth for a genuine mistake.

Will they always react graciously? No.

Is this guaranteed to show a positive short-term result? No.

Is there always a chance they'll go back to a bigoted echo chamber anyway to complain about how horrible the male ally was? Yes.

But damn, I'd be impressed with the ally for actually doing the emotional labour of reaching out to a bigot with kindness so that a woman doesn't have to.

I don't want bigots to be friends with only bigots, that just makes things worse for me later. I want bigots to be friends with my allies, not other bigots, because it means that one day that bigot can be an ally instead.

Is this a one size fits all solution? Fuck no. There is no one solution to discrimination and this certainly isn't it. This isn't about asspatting rapists, murderers, or people calling for violence. Punch the Nazi, kick the rapist, boycott that company. If someone doubles down even after you've shown good faith, that doesn't mean you should continue to give them an opportunity to gracefully back down when they're clearly not interested. Use your head, give them an opportunity, but acknowledge they might not take it.

But even people who might not show signs of listening today might be mulling over what you said later on. Slam the door if you have to, but let them know that they can knock again later. Better that you listen to this shit than the minority it will traumatise.

If you absolutely have to choose between being kind to a bigot and supporting minorities, always show support instead of kindness. But a lot of the time people think you have to choose one or the other when you don't actually have to, and this is reinforced by people who want to do what's easier. Emotional labour is HARD.

This is about allies actually doing the work of an ally over the long term by condemning bigoted actions in a way that shows that you, the person who did something harmful, are welcome among us as a person if you stop committing harmful actions. We don't have a problem with you, we have a problem with the thing you said or did. You're going to think we want nothing to do with you if we say you're a shitty person who hates women, but if we say you're a good intentioned person who fucked up, well, clearly we're okay with you just not the mistake you made.

Think of it as a carrot and stick approach. Us women venting or lashing out to defend ourselves is the stick. Allies are the carrot. Let us do the short term work of surviving and demanding. Let allies do the long term work of smoothing ruffled feathers and letting others know that they have nothing to fear from us.

Do the work so we don't have to hurt ourselves because you don't want to help us in a way that isn't as easy as telling someone to go to hell.

#Dusty has opinions #long post #sexism #bigotry #I'm gonna regret this hot take aren't I

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paullicino · 3 years

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A Year like No Other

(Taken from, and funded by, my Patreon.)

A lot of people are now calling 2020 the lost year and it’s not difficult to see why. Most of us have never had a year remotely like this last one. For some of us, the calendar began to blur, weeks and even months merging into one another in a sickly, uneasy timelessness that had us double-checking what day it was. For others, there was stress after stress, as we worried about our health, our jobs, our governments, even our countries. And the two experiences certainly weren’t mutually exclusive.

This month, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on that, acknowledging both the struggles and the successes. It’s sometimes been a difficult twelve months for me, but it certainly hasn’t been without its inspirations and its wonderful moments. I wanted to share some of those, to talk about a few ideas and to spotlight the things that helped me through 2020. I hope it helps. I figure it’s as good a time as any for us to be sharing our blessings.

And I think that first involves celebrating you. I think that’s very important. This past month, a year on from the first COVID cases being widely-reported (and also the first reports of cases where I live), I’ve read a lot by people asking questions like “What difference does it all make?” or “What is the point?” when they look back. They ask these questions when they think about things like their life changes, their mask wearing, their activism or their voting. They see an ongoing pandemic, social unrest or political inaction and wonder why they should make an effort while others are lax or apathetic. It’s natural to wonder that. I think anyone can understand the fatigue, the cynicism and the disillusionment.

But I also, get this, have a Hot Take on this that says that the choices you made were vital. When you chose to wear a mask, to socially distance, to restrict when and where you went, you actively helped fight a deadly virus. You may well have saved lives, saved someone’s health, protected livelihoods by acting as you have. When you voted, shared a cause on social media, attended a protest or talked to even one person about helping others or making the world better, you contributed to improving your society.

In fact, I have capital-O Opinions about these things so strap in and hold on, 'cause here they come.

I’ve been very fortunate to share much of my work on the internet over the years, which is a very particular medium, and sometimes that work reaches a lot of people. My experience of this is that you never know who it truly reaches, or when, or even how, and most of the time you never find out. There’s certainly an immediacy to things where you can see, pretty quickly, what the instant reaction to something is, but that’s fleeting. It doesn’t last and, within moments, there’s already something newer demanding more responses.

In time, the true consequences of things shake out. People get back to you with their more considered opinions. Sometimes months, even years after you do something, you find out from someone what they thought about it, how it affected them or even how they were changed. It can take time for a person to realise how they were changed, too, and we rarely have perspective in the moment. Sometimes it takes us years to appreciate the choices and the actions of our friends, our family members, our teachers, our communities. People have contacted me about work I’ve done long, long after I first shared it, and many of those people have come from places that I never expected, have found my work in ways that I never expected. I think, now, that consequence never travels in straight lines. That cause and effect are strangers rather than siblings.

And so I hope it’s clear that the ramble you have so kindly indulged is meant to say that we don’t always notice the good things that we have done. We ask “What difference does it all make?” or “What is the point?” because we don’t get those answers immediately, or for a long time, or sometimes ever. But not knowing when we saved someone’s health, when we changed someone’s mind, even when we inspired someone’s actions doesn’t mean that we aren’t making a difference. There is a point to our life changes, our mask wearing, our activism and our voting.

I hope you can celebrate yourself and give yourself credit for the choices you made this last year. They have mattered.

I also want to thank you so, so much for supporting my Patreon. I know many of you have been with me since day one, for more than two years now, and I’m so grateful for both your capital-P Patronage and your presence, whether that’s in our Discord community or through your comments and your correspondence. That’s made a big difference to me this past year, helping me pay rent and put food on the table during a time when so much has been uncertain. 2020 was to be my first full year back in Canada after a complicated, circuitous absence and I had half-finished projects, freelance ideas and half a dozen tabs open in my browser with writing residencies to apply for, everywhere from nearby Richmond to the Yukon Territory. I hoped this would be a year that I’d both finally see more of Canada and be able to write about it, too. A lot of things didn’t quite work out, freelance budgets were slashed, work timelines lengthened and I became ill, but as I look back now I’m thankful for a great deal.

I still managed to fulfill some ambitions. At the start of 2020 I’d been finishing up some work on Zafir, which had been an absolute delight, and I was not far off starting spring work on Magical Kitties Save the Day. The close of the year saw me resuming work on a Feng Shui expansion and each of these projects has been really good for me. All of them gave me a chance to work with skillful, progressive people and to become a better designer.

As spring continued, I decided to make a one-off video about board gaming and mental health during a pandemic, partly to offer a practical and helpful introduction to playing board games online and looking after yourself, but also because I wanted people to feel that their actions during a pandemic mattered. Among the things I referenced and linked to, I’ve continued dipping into Headspace from time to time, and this helpful list of brief work-from-home tips has been further updated. I’ve also since further investigated the terrific work of Dr. Ali Mattu, a psychologist and therapist who has produced a lot of material over the last year focusing on how to handle the pandemic.

With the summer came widespread protests across the United States, which highlighted the oppressive and fatal consequences of systemic racism and the urgent need for police reform, both issues not exclusive to the that country (for me, the events echoed the protests that began on my Tottenham street in 2011 and the violent response to 2010’s student protests). I shared a list of resources that I thought were important at the time, but there also followed a wide call for white people to make more effort to both seek out, engage with and promote motion pictures made by Black Americans, or which reflected the Black experience. It wasn’t a big ask and, as well as watching films that had been recommended many times over (such as Us, Da 5 Bloods, The Last Black Man in San Francisco and the excellent BlacKkKlansman, which was the best film I saw last year), I also tried to diversify my social media feeds more. Instagram was host to a growing discussion about how the platform seems to (deliberately or accidentally) divide people by race, something which I think may still be the case, and several nature photographers I follow promoted Tsalani Lassiter and Rae Wynn-Grant. To my delight, among many of the things they speak about and share, both are experts on bears.

I thought it was important to look more closely at Canada, too, so I made more of an effort to follow Indigenous issues and have begun reading Indigenous news sources, including First Nations Drum, Windspeaker and the Nunatsiaq News. CBC runs its own Indigenous news section, much of which is written by Indigenous reporters.A lot of freelance and writing opportunities dried up as the pandemic contracted the world’s economies, but in 2020 I was able to start writing for VICE, working with my old colleague and friend Rob Zacny, and interview the world’s most famous board game designer. VICE has written a lot of relevant, helpful and informative material about current events over the last year and I was heartened by the words of a fellow VICE writer, Gita Jackson, who concluded her essay about living in The Cool Zone of historical possibility by reminding us how “In The Cool Zone, we can also rediscover hope.”

This year I was also inspired by Faith Fundal’s widely-shared CBC podcast They and Us, which was an excellent (and still rare) example of a mainstream media exploration of gender identity and trans rights, and really pleased for my friend Brendan, who launched his podcast project Hey, Lesson! in the autumn. Of course, I can’t mention podcasts without again reminding you of my love for the spooky, supernatural Death by Monsters, which I got to host last winter. It was my dear friend Paula, one of its presenters, who recommended that I start streaming regularly, something I now do here. She was absolutely right when she talked about how positive and social an experience it can be. It’s been a real joy, as well as added some important structure and schedule to my week.

And, of course, the arrival of my first full year as a Canadian resident meant that I got to celebrate my first anniversary as a Canadian resident. I paid my taxes! Let me tell you, it was a slightly confusing and esoteric experience, but it was also one of those mundane, humdrum things that confirms and validates you. Though I didn’t get to throw a party for that anniversary, I did get to enjoy my birthday celebrations before the pandemic really hit. My partner surprised me with a trip to the not-quite-remote-but-definitely-secluded Gibsons, on the quiet British Columbia coastline, which was the best birthday gift anyone’s ever given me and a chance to see more of the rocky, forested, mountainous fringes of a place I’ve fallen so in love with. Before Vancouver closed down, I was also able to collect more than a dozen people (representing five different nationalities!) together in a brewery and then a restaurant, something that now feels like an extremely alien concept. For some of us in our friend group, it’s the last memory we have of coming together and being in the same space. That gives it a pronounced poignancy, a bittersweet quality.

Finally, I’d like to share two more things with you. The first is particularly peculiar and personal: I found my wizard. After drafting this piece last summer, then sharing it in the autumn, a few suggestions led me not straight to my goal, but ultimately down the right path. The game that I was thinking of is called The Tomb of Drewan and I very much doubt that anyone, anywhere is likely to have heard of it. It’s thirty-nine years old this year and it was distributed by a publisher in Berkshire, not so far from where I grew up. It only took me three and a half decades to see what it looks like in colour.

Tracking down this game was a softly satisfying experience. It’s exactly as I remember. Everything makes sense. Reading through the manual reminds me of how difficult it was to try and understand this thing through a monochrome monitor, though I also think it was likely way too complex for the child I was. I don’t think I ever got anywhere. I don’t think I ever could have. But I at least know that my memory has served me well. That wizard was as real as could be.

The second thing is something about my own missing year, something that has also resurfaced in my memory as we’ve plodded through 2020. In the long, dark winter months, in the unstructured days and the collapsing weeks, I’ve been transported back to the early 2000s and to a time that now feels very familiar. Here's what that was like.

I’d been writing professionally for a few years, comfortably and competently, while still living in suburban Hampshire. As publishing moved from magazines to the internet, my work began to dry up, my options narrowed and, honestly, I didn’t respond to this shift by producing my best material. I also didn’t know what to do about all this change, becoming directionless and unsure. I didn’t yet have the confidence to take some of the larger steps that I eventually did and, instead, somewhere in all that I began to move backward. I struggled to find work. I slept the strangest hours. I was frustrated, but it also didn’t matter nearly enough to me because also, I was no longer motivated.

I have memories of waking up at all kinds of times of day and night. Of not knowing where to go. Of running out of things to take photographs of, after looking at the same local sights over and over. It was like living at the bottom of a well, with a tiny, distant view of the world and no handholds for climbing out. I wasted time because I had time to waste, something I deeply regret now, and I became crabby, unhealthy and inward-looking. I was far from my best.

The last time I was in England I found myself going through old things from the early 2000s. I found many of the books I read, a great deal of writing I’d done and, in particular, a lot of my old RPG notes. A lot of old RPG notes, an absolute wealth of work that far exceeded anything I’d done outside of any work except that on Paranoia. I’ve written before about my roleplaying past and how I have fond memories of it, but I had completely forgotten exactly how much material I had collected together. I had so many biographies that I’d indexed them. I was starting to form an encyclopedia of everything I’d done, just so that I could find and reference the things I needed.

I had also read so much, which both prepared me for my degree and began to make me a better writer. I’d mostly stopped reading in my mid-teens and this was a new spurt of interest that led me toward many of the tastes and preferences I have today. I began to develop my fiction and non-fiction writing styles and I developed an interest in non-fiction that had paid me back a thousandfold.

I was building a new me.

I see now that I didn’t lose a year. I was certainly caught in a swamp of sorts, struggling to make progress, but the experiences I had during that time still mattered. They didn’t matter right away and they didn’t matter in any way that seemed at all obvious to me at the time, but they helped to shape me and to guide me, to show me both what I wanted and, certainly, what I didn’t want. If I had the chance to repeat it, I’d for sure live that missing year differently. I’d live it so much better, so much wiser and so much more fruitfully, but I can at least see it now as not the waste I long thought that it was.

And so I hope it’s clear that the ramble you have so kindly indulged is meant to say that, some time in the future, you may look back on 2020 and find your successes, your satisfaction, even your strength. I don’t mean to disregard anyone’s suffering or sadness, your feelings are valid and the pain, loss and difficulties you’ve encountered are very real. I don’t much like people who dismiss the feelings of others and I apologise if I’ve been too glib. I think a past version of myself needed to read something like this, a long time ago, and I only want to give them, you or anyone who might see this, hope for the future, a few reasons to be optimistic and, very importantly, a reminder to celebrate yourself.

Happy 2021. You made a difference. You always have.

#COVID-19 #2020 #Canada #writing #hope #you made a difference #Patreon #A CHAOS SPELL

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ucflibrary · 4 years

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Every October UCF celebrates Diversity Week and for 2020 it runs from October 19 – 23. The theme is Stronger Together: Unified! Connected! Family! This highlights how together we can make UCF and the surrounding community stronger and more connected with each other.

One of the fantastic things about UCF is the wide range of cultures and ethnicities of our students, staff, and faculty. We come from all over. We’re just as proud of where we are from as we are of where we are now and where we will be heading in future.

UCF Libraries is offering a full calendar of virtual Diversity Week activities from family friendly crafts to talks by area experts and film discussions. Don’t miss out on our community showcase which features UCF alumni and faculty and how they support the Knight community. We even have digital puzzles and downloadable coloring pages. And you can also add your voice to the 2020 UCF story by participating in our digital time capsule. To learn about the upcoming events visit: guides.ucf.edu/diversityweek

Join the UCF Libraries as we celebrate diverse voices and subjects with these suggestions. Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the featured UCF Celebrates Diversity titles suggested by UCF Library employees. These and additional books are on display in the new 4th floor Reading Room.

And thank you to every Knight who works to help others feel accepted and included at UCF!

A Faithful Reading Partner: a story from a Hakka village by SuHua Huang A welcome addition to dual language literature, the story is about growing up among the Hakka people in Taiwan. In order to succeed, it is important for children to have a reading partner. But in this case, it is a dog with which the children develop deep friendships as they share their books with him. A sub-current to the main story is one of being a minority within a minority and success, which though longed for, inevitably contains sadness wrapped within its joy. Presented to UCF Libraries by the Chinese American Community in Orlando. Suggested by Sai Deng, Acquisitions & Collection Services

Discrimination and Disparities by Thomas Sowell Challenges believers in such one-factor explanations of economic outcome differences as discrimination, exploitation or genetics. It offers its own new analysis, based on an entirely different approach--and backed up with empirical evidence from around the world. The point is not to recommend some particular policy "fix", but to clarify why so many policy fixes have turned out to be counterproductive, and to expose some seemingly invincible fallacies behind many of those policies Suggested by Cynthia Kisby, Administration

Equality and Diversity: phenomenological investigations of prejudice and discrimination by Michael D. Barber Examples of prejudice against Jews, women, African Americans, and other minority groups are reported almost daily by the media. Despite educational programs to counteract prejudicial attitudes, this seemingly intractable problem remains an ongoing concern, not only in the United States but throughout the world. It is an interesting and often overlooked fact that the subject of prejudice has been the focus of major works by three prominent philosophers in the phenomenological tradition, works that still offer many insights into contemporary attempts to understand this social problem. Michael Barber examines this striking convergence of interests by these three philosophers and explores the significance of phenomenology for analyzing prejudice as expressed in anti-Semitism, sexism, and racism. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

Hacking Diversity: the politics of inclusion in open technology cultures by Christina Dunbar-Hester We regularly read and hear exhortations for women to take up positions in STEM. The call comes from both government and private corporate circles, and it also emanates from enthusiasts for free and open source software (FOSS), i.e. software that anyone is free to use, copy, study, and change in any way. Ironically, rate of participation in FOSS-related work is far lower than in other areas of computing. A 2002 European Union study showed that fewer than 2 percent of software developers in the FOSS world were women. This book is an ethnographic investigation of efforts to improve the diversity in software and hackerspace communities, with particular attention paid to gender diversity advocacy. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Mothers Work: confronting the Mommy Wars, raising children, and working for social change by Michelle Napierski-Prancl Through a series of focus group interviews and an analysis of the media and popular culture, Napierski-Prancl explores the institution of motherhood and the arenas in which mothering occurs while analyzing how mothers feel about themselves, each other, and the culture that situates them against one another. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

On the Freedom Side: how five decades of youth activists have remixed American history by Wesley C. Hogan As Wesley C. Hogan sees it, the future of democracy belongs to young people. While today's generation of leaders confronts a daunting array of existential challenges, increasingly it is young people in the United States and around the world who are finding new ways of belonging, collaboration, and survival. That reality forms the backbone of this book, as Hogan documents and assesses young people's interventions in the American fight for democracy and its ideals. As Hogan reveals, the the civil rights movement has often been carried forward by young people at the margins of power and wealth in U.S. society. This book foregrounds their voices and gathers their inventions--not in a comprehensive survey, but as an activist mix tape--with lively, fresh perspectives on the promise of twenty-first-century U.S. democracy. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Pippa Park Raises Her Game by Erin Yun Life is full of great expectations for Korean American Pippa Park. It seems like everyone, from her family to the other kids at school, has a plan for how her life should look. So when Pippa gets a mysterious basketball scholarship to Lakeview Private, she jumps at the chance to reinvent herself by following the "Rules of Cool." At Lakeview, Pippa juggles old and new friends, an unrequited crush, and the pressure to perform academically and athletically while keeping her past and her family's laundromat a secret from her elite new classmates. But when Pippa begins to receive a string of hateful, anonymous messages via social media, her carefully built persona is threatened. As things begin to spiral out of control, Pippa discovers the real reason she was admitted to Lakeview and wonders if she can keep her old and new lives separate, or if she should even try. Presented to UCF Libraries by the Chinese American Community in Orlando. Suggested by Sai Deng, Acquisitions & Collection Services

Sexuality, Equality, and Diversity by Diane Richardson and Surya Monro Investigating the dynamics of identity and sexual citizenship in a changing world, this compelling text explores key debates around human rights and representation, policy and resistance. Incorporating theory with original research, this is a thought-provoking insight into sexuality and diversity in a global age. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

Shame: how America's past sins have polarized our country by Shelby Steele Part memoir and part meditation on the failed efforts to achieve racial equality in Americathis work advances Shelby Steele's provocative argument that "new liberalism" has done more harm than good. Since the 1960s, overt racism against blacks is almost universally condemned, so much so that racism is no longer, by itself, a prohibitive barrier to black advancement. But African Americans remain at a disadvantage in American society, and Steele lays the blame at the feet of white liberals. According to Steele, liberals have refused to acknowledge the country's progress over the past 50 years, in part because their notions of white guilt and black victimization help preserve their position of power over blacks. Suggested by Cynthia Kisby, Administration

The Boy Who Became a Dragon: a Bruce Lee story by Jim Di Bartolo This book presents a biography of the martial arts legend, describing his childhood in Hong Kong and how it was shaped by World War II, and his success as an international star. Presented to UCF Libraries by the Chinese American Community in Orlando. Suggested by Sai Deng, Acquisitions & Collection Services

This Promise of Change: one girl's story in the fight for school equality by Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy In 1956, one year before federal troops escorted the Little Rock 9 into Central High School, fourteen year old Jo Ann Allen was one of twelve African-American students who broke the color barrier and integrated Clinton High School in Tennessee. At first things went smoothly for the Clinton 12, but then outside agitators interfered, pitting the townspeople against one another. Uneasiness turned into anger, and even the Clinton Twelve themselves wondered if the easier thing to do would be to go back to their old school. This is the heartbreaking and relatable story of her four months thrust into the national spotlight and as a trailblazer in history. Suggested by Ven Basco, Research & Information Services

We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices edited by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson What do we tell our children when the world seems bleak, and prejudice and racism run rampant? With 96 lavishly designed pages of original art, poetry, and prose, fifty diverse creators lend voice and comfort to young activists. Suggested by Ven Basco, Research & Information Services

#ucflibrary #featured #booklr #diversity in reading #suggested reading #diveristy week

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h-sleepingirl · 5 years

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“9 Persisting Misconceptions About Hypnosis”

A zine by sleepingirl and GleefulAbandon

(Access the downloadable and nicely formatted Google Doc here!)

Hey, there! Have you been turned on to the wonders of hypnokink? Do you feel like you've just had a bucket of shibboleths and tips and bits of wisdom dumped over your head, and they are now slowly dripping down your back? Are you thinking to yourself, "OK, I am finally getting the hang of this erotic hypnosis thing?"

Not so fast! Odds are a lot of the information you've received is, while given in good faith, mired in assumptions about the nature of hypnosis and the human mind that are not empirically true! And the kicker about a practice that takes advantage of suggestibility is that buying into these can make them more true! How’s that for a mental rut?

Here are 9 myths about hypnosis you are likely to encounter in your freaky journey!

(Full disclosure: We are experienced hypnotic players who are constantly exploring and growing, and we recognize that not everyone may share our perspective on all of these. But when we accept the oft-repeated principles we hear as incontrovertible truth without questioning them, we risk building a wall between us and further learning about the amazing, weird things we can do with our brains! This is not meant to disparage any person for their beliefs or experiences, and we welcome feedback and discussion!)

1. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis.

Yep, and all pain you feel when someone punches you in the thigh is your own brain making pain happen. CURSE YOU, BRAIN!

This tends to be an idiom that can cause more harm than good. It’s clearly not an empirical statement (how could it be?) though it is often taken as one. On the surface, it’s well-intentioned and trying to convey that subjects have agency and hypnosis isn’t mind control like you see in the movies. However, while it's good to know that subjects have the ability to cultivate a real sense of self-sufficiency, it minimizes connection with the hypnotist and the power that can be exchanged. Hypnosis is collaborative, and the hypnotist’s behavior absolutely affects trance, whether positively, or in bad situations, negatively! It takes two to do hypnosis with two, full stop.

When you hear this phrase, ask yourself, what is really being communicated here?

2. Hypnosis is distinctly different than meditation, subspace, etc.

Different how, exactly? Sexiness is not sufficient here, kids.

Well, here's a whole can of worms: Hypnosis as defined by hypnokink practitioners tends to be a wider umbrella than the clinical definition of hypnosis. There is also the concept of hypnosis as an altered state and then the concept of hypnosis as a set of practices. Pretty much any altered state could be called hypnosis when kinksters use it in hypnokink to commit dastardly deeds. Same with the (extraordinarily broad) set of practices that we take advantage of to fuck with brains.

Here’s the thing: hypnosis isn’t just one solid thing or state with one solid set of rules. Trance and brainfuckery are dynamic! We don’t really even have a great way of defining suggestibility, because we know that shoving someone into an altered state and then telling them, “You will experience xyz” is not really sufficient. And of course, a lot of stuff can get done outside of a traditional “trance.” Where is the line?

Spoilers: Any line we make is subjective. Meditation, when you potentially put yourself in an altered state and change the way you focus pretty much fits under that umbrella, too.

3. You can't make someone do something they "don't want to do" or go against "core values" with hypnosis.

We do things we don't want to do all the time, starting each day from when we wake up when our alarms go off. People drink alcohol and do things they wouldn't have otherwise done. People are talked into buying things they don’t want or need, or making complex decisions that don’t always have their best interests at heart. Not to mention that our broad-strokes “core beliefs” are changeable, sometimes with just a simple shift in perspective.

Human beings are dynamic and complex and exciting creatures, and we don't have a black box inside of us with ideas that are immutable to us. Change in belief and behavior is a part of how we function, and that’s WITHOUT hypnosis! Once again, this myth is well-intentioned, but an oversimplification that can backfire if someone is trying to process why they experienced a hypnotic scene differently than they thought they would.

4. Depth is the key to suggestibility.

Here's an idea: A swear jar but you have to put money in every time someone asks if they were "deep enough." Depth is a metaphor, but it's a useful one! It relates to your own subjective trance experience and how you experience intensifying it, which is hugely important self-knowledge. But it is not quantifiable, and there is not a simple correlation between depth and ability to access more trance phenomena. As with many things in hypnosis, it’s different for everyone and can be different at different times based on a huge number of variables.

And on that note…

5. Suggestibility scales are legit.

"But wait!" You might say, "These have been studied! What about things like the Stanford Susceptibility Scale?"

They're bad.

Academics, in good faith, tried to impose objective rules on altered states that run on the subjectivity and diversity of the human mind. People are different. Subjects are different. Alas, researchers at Stanford in 1959 (yes, that long ago) were mystified by this concept. And still, so are some today.

Really, Stanford peeps, amnesia is the most hypnotized a person can get? Some folks lose memories in trance right away but won't take to certain hallucinations. And some hallucinations are easier for some folks than others. Trying to create hypnotic rules for how hypnotizable you are is a losing game.

But speaking of different kinds of hallucinations...

6. Working with someone’s “primary modality” is the key to effective hypnosis.

The idea that of the five senses we each have one primary one that aids in our learning and that is best used to create hypnotic states and phenomena is not only limiting, it’s been debunked time and time again. The concept of “modalities” that is so prevalent in the erotic hypnosis world comes directly from NLP, where Richard Bandler and John Grinder stated that we had primary modalities — a “Preferred Representational System.” However, just like with learning styles, study after study after study has found no supporting evidence of this. In fact, in the ‘80s (yes, that long ago), Bandler himself said that this idea was no longer emphasized in NLP (regardless of the fact that it is still pervasive today).

And beyond this, yeah, you could spend your time using only visual cues and visual words and creating visual hallucinations, or you could actually utilize multiple senses, because spoiler alert that is how human beings experience the world. You're not trying to find a secret code that unlocks a shortcut to being a better subject, you're Dora the Goddamned Explorer and it's not just about finding the thing at the end; it's about chilling with Boots and Map.

7. “iM tOo AnAlYtIcAl To Be HyPnOtIzEd”

Also going in the swear jar is anyone saying they have trouble being hypnotized because they're "too analytical." Bruh. Hypnosis is not a game of chess wherein the hypnotist out-logics the subject to get them to comply. It's engaging your brain and letting you do more with it than you thought possible. This is definitely not downplaying the experience of people who have had a difficult time getting the experiences they are searching for, but more about The System(ic misunderstanding pervading hypnokink culture) getting us all down.

Being “thinky” doesn’t mean someone can’t be hypnotized (hypnosis =/= not thinking or altered thinking), it just means that you both use what you’ve got — hypnotist AND subject. Analyzing something doesn’t make it impossible to trance. Hypnosis should not be synonymous with “letting go.” It’s about changes in focus and engagement, oftentimes really subtle, especially for subjects who have preconceived notions of what it’s going to feel like. It’s dynamic, it doesn’t mean laser focus, and it sure as hell doesn’t mean blank-minded.

Subjects: Learn to love the way you analyze; notice shifts and changes, use it to be open to learning about how hypnosis feels for you as opposed to what you expect it to feel like. Understanding what your real subjective responses are is key to growing.

Hypnotists: While it might be helpful for some people, stop assuming that you necessarily have to overload or confuse them to get to the holy hypnotic grail of mindlessness; utilize their internal responses for the trance!

Here's a secret: If a hypnotist calls someone a "difficult subject," they mean they failed to connect with their partner in a way that they deemed hypnotic enough. This is on them, not the subject.

8. Your subconscious is like a quiet roommate chilling inside your head.

The metaphor of your subconscious (or unconscious mind) as someone with whom you can communicate is a useful one for a lot of people! It can put you in touch with how you're feeling and processing, and create fun surprises no one might expect. But it's just that: a metaphor. Your brain is not a director and an actor; it’s a beautifully complex amalgam of experiences and observations. You can play with treating your subconscious as a person, but recognize that there's not literally a man behind a curtain, and recognize that your interpretation of it might be flawed (i.e., don’t use your “unconscious mind” to negotiate under the assumption that this conscious personification is faultless and somehow knows better than you do).

9. Abreactions.

This is a huge one, and another one where the hypnosis scene has deviated from psychology (sometimes a good thing!). Clinically, an abreaction is a response with some emotional connection, and is in fact often used as a tool to create breakthroughs in therapy. In the hypnokink Scene, “abreaction” has also become a boogeyman, a synonym for "freak out.”

Can folks freak out during a hypnosis scene? Sure! Can they freak out during an impact scene? Of course! Can they freak out in the dairy aisle of the supermarket because the wrong song starts playing on the loudspeaker? Also, yes. But an abreaction isn't technically synonymous with freak-out. Technically, a giggle-fit during hypnosis can be an abreaction.

Here’s the thing: it might even be OK to appropriate the term “abreaction” to mean “negative reaction” in the hypnokink community, but we have to stop making that interchangeable with “unexpected reaction.” Of course a negative reaction is unexpected. But that doesn’t mean all unexpected reactions are negative. They happen absolutely all the time in hypnosis; demonizing all of them is unhealthy and unrealistic.

Well-intentioned practitioners of erotic hypnosis have put all their safety eggs in one basket: Caution against causing an abreaction, end the scene when you do, and you've accounted for the worst. But this is a scene that traffics in suggestibility; when you make out abreactions to be this looming, awful risk, you bring them to the fore, and when both players assume that that means an unexpected reaction is cause for panic, it creates unwarranted anxiety and problems. Not to mention that it greatly hinders the breadth and depth of what you can achieve together.

In short, you can and should learn to navigate emotional vulnerability and be confident and flexible in handling your partners’ responses, no matter how unexpected or intense they are. We're here for those reactions, folks, and not all of them are to be feared and fixed.

Sleepingirl is a switchy writer, presenter, and podcaster who joined the public kink scene in 2012. She’s had a life-long hypnofetish and is way too interested in brainwashing. She did the doodles for this zine, and look out for her Brainwashing Book coming soon! Check out her hypnokink podcast at twohypchicks.simplecast.fm and follow her: Twitter @h_sleepingirl, Tumblr @h-sleepingirl, FetLife @sleepingirl

GleefulAbandon is a queer, submissive hypnofetishist. She joined the BDSM/Hypnokink Scene in 2012, and teaches and writes about hypnosis from the subject’s perspective. She’s a sucker for a pocket watch. @gleefulabandon

#hypnosis #hypnokink #my writing

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glennart81 · 4 years

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ineedrelationshipadvice · 4 years

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The current situation in which we live and my recent 30th birthday have really got me thinking that I need a long term partner ASAP; that everyday that goes by without someone hurts and the more I wait to find someone the less my chances I actually do find someone. What are some tips to date with purpose and motivation? I don't want to fall short and end up still single and unloved in ten years.

High five on growing older. You and I are around the same age. So understand that when I say this, I do feel you. Although I do have a long-term relationship right now, I didn't for nearly 6+ years before that, both because of horrific luck and just bad juju all around.

What I can say quite directly is that you should not try to worry as much as you are. While it's valid to have these concerns, you don't want to get yourself all wound up because of it. Are we getting older? Yes. But reasonably, we've barely lived over a third of our lives. That might feel long, but it also felt long when we were just learning of the concept of love for the first time approximately around the ages of 8-12, and when we were entering our first relationship approximately around the ages of 14-20, and so forth. It always feels like we're running out of time, but it's all a matter of perspective. Don't freak out about the details; it'll be okay. There's plenty of time to find a romantic partner, and you'll likely be engaging with people in romantic ways not only through the next decade, but perhaps even much longer, especially if you enter a long-term romantic relationship.

But to the heart of the question, how do you date with purpose and motivation?

The motivation I can outright not help you with. That's a thing on your end. Only you can motivate yourself to go out in to that wide ocean to find the plenty of fish everyone claims are out there. It's not always fun, and it's not always glamorous, but just remember that if you don't put yourself out there, you won't catch that fish you're searching for.

On dating with purpose, however, that is much easier. Dating with purpose requires you to take a distinct mental outlook on the manner in which you date. That's a fancy way of saying, "Only date people who are worth your time." Lots of people tend to date whatever their heart desires. And I'm gonna be honest - you can see this by looking back at a whole segment of the last several dozen questions I answered - not everyone's "heart" guides them to the right destination. Lots of people spend a majority of their romantic years falling in love and getting burned. Why?

Because again, we're trying to date with purpose. If our purpose is to find a stable, long-term relationship, then that means some things are not dating with purpose. Having a sexy hook-up with someone hot on a whim is awesome, but that's not dating with purpose. Dating a guy because he seemed super cute or attractive is fun, but not dating with purpose. Breaking up because things are getting dull or "boring" is not dating with purpose.

So how do you date with purpose?

You need to fully adopt that actual purpose that you have. If your goal is a long-term, stable relationship, then you need to look for those qualities right away. Figure out what those qualities are, and single them out in the people that you meet. For me, as an example: I seek partners who are outgoing, generally mature, have objectives/goals, who treat me generally well, share a majority of interests with me, and who are consistent in one way or another. I don't have time for sketchy or unstable people; I don't have time for people who are only interested in sex; I don't have time for people who are interested in partying or clubbing; I don't have time for people who are going to treat me like shit; I don't have time for people who aren't going to fulfill my needs.

My viewpoint means I'm very strict. It means I don't date a lot of people, and don't have a whole lot of varied romantic experiences. But I make up from that by having VERY long-term relationships. This is good, because I'm what most people would call demisexual (even though I don't identify by that, and don't care for the term). I am usually not attracted to someone unless I have a ton of emotional investment and trust in them, so I'm not going to date someone until they hit that threshold. That's a general benefit of me being who I am, but you see that that viewpoint is couched in a strict logic that I apply on who I'm looking for in a relationship. If someone doesn't meet my expectations, they're out by default as a romantic partner. This limits your dating pool dramatically, but that's good, because you don't NEED those people who aren't going to stick around.

Some additional concerns though.

Let me be clear, stable relationships are NOT popular right now. As much as people yearn for that picture-perfect relationship, having been on the front lines of literally thousands of people coming to me with their advice questions, the one thing I've noticed in recent history is that relationships are becoming LESS long-term. Most people are more interested in casual hook-ups and sex, and more people have more partners (especially within our age-bracket (I can't really have firm opinions on Gen-Z dating habits)). Furthermore, when people do enter relationships, ideals such as marriage, having children, and stuff like that are much less common, both among millennials and Gen-Z. Why? Idk, maybe a fuckin' Great Recession followed by a global pandemic kicking our teeth out, and a shitty capitalist society which does not benefit us (sorry I'm ranting (RIP Bernie)).

The reason this is relevant is because it means people who are seeking long-term relationships are entering an uphill battle. We're working against generational ideals on what relationships should be, as well as the very idea of what a relationship is changing as we speak. Maybe that'll change even more in the next decade, but I have a hunch that we're going to be in a period of hyper-emotional, extremely transitory relationships for a very long time. So just know that approaching this endeavour; don't lose hope if it seems like the world is working against your idea of a great, long-term relationship, because it is.

Finally, understand that there is a big risk in long-term relationships. The one that you're already feeling. Long-term, good, proper relationships take a LOT of time. I'm currently in a two-year relationship with my partner, and if you asked if I was ready to seal the deal, get married, and have kids, NO NO NO NO NO NO. I don't even have a job and have a mountain of debt, I can barely take care of myself much less someone else. As much as I yearn to get married and start a family, I'm just not ready.

And that's Okay, I still have lots of time, as do you. Which is the final step in all of this. Patience. Relationships and love aren't a science. All you can do is your best, and hope things work out, and also be cognizant of when it's not working out so you can jump ship early and with good intentions rather than on whims. All we can do is hope it'll all work out in the end, and combine our good faith with good actions.

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pfenniged · 5 years

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Recommendations for Social Sciences Literature:

So as a recently graduated law student and lawyer (as well as being affected by many areas of intersectionality related below), I’ve been really into studying the social sciences and how society reflects how it treats the least of its citizens. My friend suggested that I draw up a list of recommendations for her, and share it with others as well.

While my interest in these books might begin in how to consider the perspectives of others and consolidate my own point of view when representing a client, I can safely reassure you all that these are (for the most part) layperson books that I read in my spare time; not ridiculous legal dirges that will put you to sleep. All these books were spectacularly engaging for me, and I’d recommend them highly.

I’d also like to preface this list with the fact that I educate myself on books that consider intersectionality and how the experiences of individual subsections of society affect society as a whole and an individual’s position in them. While as a result of the topics themselves these books often consider bigotry and sensitive issues/topics, they are academic considerations of societal constructs and demographics (as well as the history that grows from oppression of certain subsections of society), and attempt to be balanced academic/philosophical narratives. Therefore, while difficult topics might be broached (such as, for example, the discrimination transexual women face in being considered ‘women’), none that I have read would ever be intentionally insulting/ extremist in their views, and many are written by scholars and academics directly affected by these issues. Just research these books before purchasing them, is all I ask; for your own self-care. ♥

That being said, I have divided these recommendations into several areas of study. I will also mark when there is a decided crossover of intersectionality, for your benefit:

Feminist Theory: Mostly concerned with the limitation of womens emotions, the experience of women within Trump’s America, and the idealised liberation of women in 1960s, with a particular focus on the UK and ‘swinging’ London.

Disability Theory: Academic Ableism in post-educational facilities and within the immigration process.

Black Theory: This includes the relations between colonialism and the oppressed individual’s underneath its weight, the struggle through American’s history through ‘white rage’ towards the success of African-American success, and a sad history of racial ‘passing’ in America.

Immigration Theory: This mostly focuses on the experience of the disabled and Southern/Eastern Europeans/ Jewish people entering both Canada and the United States. It also provides this background to the immigration policies against a backdrop of social eugenics. I also included a book on the UK history of the workhouse in this category, as immigrants were often disproportionately affected by poverty once arriving in the UK/England, and often had to seek shelter in such ‘establishments.’

LGBT+ Social Theory/History: The history of transsexualism and the development of transexual rights throughout history.

Canadian Indigenous Theory/History: A history of the movements between the Indigenous peoples of North America and colonialists, as well as a two-part series on Canada’s Indian Act and Reconciliation (’Legalise’ aside in its consideration of the Indian Act, these are fantastic for the layperson to understand the effect such a document has had on the modern day issues and abuse of Indigenous people in Canada in particular, as well as how non-Indigenous people may work actively towards reconciliation in the future).

Toxic Masculinity: Angry White Men essentially tries to explain the unexplainable; namely, why there has been such a rise of the racist and sexist white American male, that eventually culminated in the election of Donald Trump (However, this really rings true for any ‘angry white men’ resulting from the rise of the far right across Europe and beyond). It is based on the idea of "aggrieved entitlement": a sense that those benefits that white men believed were their due have been snatched away from them by THE REST OF US~~~. While good, also just really expect to be mad (not in particular at the poor sociologist studying this and analysing this phenomenon, as he tries to be even-handed, but that such a thing exists at all).

1. Feminist Theory:

Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger:

As women, we’ve been urged for so long to bottle up our anger, letting it corrode our bodies and minds in ways we don’t even realize. Yet there are so, so many legitimate reasons for us to feel angry, ranging from blatant, horrifying acts of misogyny to the subtle drip, drip drip of daily sexism that reinforces the absurdly damaging gender norms of our society. In Rage Becomes Her, Soraya Chemaly argues that our anger is not only justified, it is also an active part of the solution. We are so often encouraged to resist our rage or punished for justifiably expressing it, yet how many remarkable achievements would never have gotten off the ground without the kernel of anger that fueled them? Approached with conscious intention, anger is a vital instrument, a radar for injustice and a catalyst for change. On the flip side, the societal and cultural belittlement of our anger is a cunning way of limiting and controlling our power—one we can no longer abide.

Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America:

Nasty Women includes inspiring essays from a diverse group of talented women writers who seek to provide a broad look at how we got here and what we need to do to move forward.Featuring essays by REBECCA SOLNIT on Trump and his “misogyny army,” CHERYL STRAYED on grappling with the aftermath of Hillary Clinton’s loss, SARAH HEPOLA on resisting the urge to drink after the election, NICOLE CHUNG on family and friends who support Trump, KATHA POLLITT on the state of reproductive rights and what we do next, JILL FILIPOVIC on Trump’s policies and the life of a young woman in West Africa, SAMANTHA IRBY on racism and living as a queer black woman in rural America, RANDA JARRAR on traveling across the country as a queer Muslim American, SARAH HOLLENBECK on Trump’s cruelty toward the disabled, MEREDITH TALUSAN on feminism and the transgender community, and SARAH JAFFE on the labor movement and active and effective resistance, among others.

(A heavy focus on intersectionality ♥)

The Feminine Revolution: 21 Ways to Ignite the Power of Your Femininity for a Brighter Life and a Better World:

Challenging old and outdated perceptions that feminine traits are weaknesses, The Feminine Revolution revisits those characteristics to show how they are powerful assets that should be embraced rather than maligned. It argues that feminine traits have been mischaracterized as weak, fragile, diminutive, and embittered for too long, and offers a call to arms to redeem them as the superpowers and gifts that they are.The authors, Amy Stanton and Catherine Connors, begin with a brief history of when-and-why these traits were defined as weaknesses, sharing opinions from iconic females including Marianne Williamson and Cindy Crawford. Then they offer a set of feminine principles that challenge current perceptions of feminine traits, while providing women new mindsets to reclaim those traits with confidence.

How Was It For You?: Women, Sex, Love and Power in the 1960s:

The sexual revolution liberated a generation. But men most of all.

We tend to think of the 60s as a decade sprinkled with stardust: a time of space travel and utopian dreams, but above all of sexual abandonment. When the pill was introduced on the NHS in 1961 it seemed, for the first time, that women - like men - could try without buying.

But this book - by 'one of the great social historians of our time' - describes a turbulent power struggle.

Here are the voices from the battleground. Meet dollybird Mavis, debutante Kristina, Beryl who sang with the Beatles, bunny girl Patsy, Christian student Anthea, industrial campaigner Mary and countercultural Caroline. From Carnaby Street to Merseyside, from mods to rockers, from white gloves to Black is Beautiful, their stories throw an unsparing spotlight on morals, four-letter words, faith, drugs, race, bomb culture and sex.

This is a moving, shocking book about tearing up the world and starting again. It's about peace, love, psychedelia and strange pleasures, but it is also about misogyny, violation and discrimination - half a century before feminism rebranded. For out of the swamp of gropers and groupies, a movement was emerging, and discovering a new cause: equality.

The 1960s: this was where it all began. Women would never be the same again.

2. Disability Theory:

Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education:

Academic Ableism brings together disability studies and institutional critique to recognize the ways that disability is composed in and by higher education, and rewrites the spaces, times, and economies of disability in higher education to place disability front and center. For too long, argues Jay Timothy Dolmage, disability has been constructed as the antithesis of higher education, often positioned as a distraction, a drain, a problem to be solved. The ethic of higher education encourages students and teachers alike to accentuate ability, valorize perfection, and stigmatize anything that hints at intellectual, mental, or physical weakness, even as we gesture toward the value of diversity and innovation. Examining everything from campus accommodation processes, to architecture, to popular films about college life, Dolmage argues that disability is central to higher education, and that building more inclusive schools allows better education for all.

(See immigration below for another book by this author on the intersection between immigration policy and disability).

3. Black Theory:

Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon:

A major influence on civil rights, anti-colonial, and black consciousness movements around the world, Black Skin, White Masks is the unsurpassed study of the black psyche in a white world. Hailed for its scientific analysis and poetic grace when it was first published in 1952, the book remains a vital force today from one of the most important theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, and racial difference in history.

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism:

Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, the author examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide:

From the Civil War to our combustible present, and now with a new epilogue about the 2016 presidential election, acclaimed historian Carol Anderson reframes our continuing conversation about race. White Rage chronicles the powerful forces opposed to black progress in America. As Ferguson, Missouri, erupted in August 2014, and media commentators across the ideological spectrum referred to the angry response of African Americans as “black rage,” historian Carol Anderson wrote a remarkable op-ed in the Washington Post showing that this was, instead, “white rage at work. With so much attention on the flames,” she writes, “everyone had ignored the kindling.”Since 1865 and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, every time African Americans have made advances towards full participation in our democracy, white reaction has fueled a deliberate and relentless rollback of their gains. The end of the Civil War and Reconstruction was greeted with the Black Codes and Jim Crow; the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was met with the shutting down of public schools throughout the South while taxpayer dollars financed segregated white private schools; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 triggered a coded but powerful response, the so-called Southern Strategy and the War on Drugs that disenfranchised millions of African Americans while propelling presidents Nixon and Reagan into the White House.Carefully linking these and other historical flashpoints when social progress for African Americans was countered by deliberate and cleverly crafted opposition, Anderson pulls back the veil that has long covered actions made in the name of protecting democracy, fiscal responsibility, or protection against fraud, rendering visible the long lineage of white rage. Compelling and dramatic in the unimpeachable history it relates, White Rage will add an important new dimension to the national conversation about race in America.

A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life:

Between the eighteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, countless African Americans passed as white, leaving behind families and friends, roots and community. It was, as Allyson Hobbs writes, a chosen exile, a separation from one racial identity and the leap into another. This revelatory history of passing explores the possibilities and challenges that racial indeterminacy presented to men and women living in a country obsessed with racial distinctions. It also tells a tale of loss.As racial relations in America have evolved so has the significance of passing. To pass as white in the antebellum South was to escape the shackles of slavery. After emancipation, many African Americans came to regard passing as a form of betrayal, a selling of one’s birthright. When the initially hopeful period of Reconstruction proved short-lived, passing became an opportunity to defy Jim Crow and strike out on one’s own.Although black Americans who adopted white identities reaped benefits of expanded opportunity and mobility, Hobbs helps us to recognize and understand the grief, loneliness, and isolation that accompanied―and often outweighed―these rewards. By the dawning of the civil rights era, more and more racially mixed Americans felt the loss of kin and community was too much to bear, that it was time to “pass out” and embrace a black identity. Although recent decades have witnessed an increasingly multiracial society and a growing acceptance of hybridity, the problem of race and identity remains at the center of public debate and emotionally fraught personal decisions.

4. Immigration Theory:

The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America:

A forgotten, dark chapter of American history with implications for the current day, The Guarded Gate tells the story of the scientists who argued that certain nationalities were inherently inferior, providing the intellectual justification for the harshest immigration law in American history. Brandished by the upper class Bostonians and New Yorkers—many of them progressives—who led the anti-immigration movement, the eugenic arguments helped keep hundreds of thousands of Jews, Italians, and other unwanted groups out of the US for more than 40 years.Over five years in the writing, The Guarded Gate tells the complete story from its beginning in 1895, when Henry Cabot Lodge and other Boston Brahmins launched their anti-immigrant campaign. In 1921, Vice President Calvin Coolidge declared that “biological laws” had proven the inferiority of southern and eastern Europeans; the restrictive law was enacted three years later.

Disabled Upon Arrival: Eugenics, Immigration, and the Construction of Race and Disability:

In North America, immigration has never been about immigration. That was true in the early twentieth century when anti-immigrant rhetoric led to draconian crackdowns on the movement of bodies, and it is true today as new measures seek to construct migrants as dangerous and undesirable. This premise forms the crux of Jay Timothy Dolmage’s new book Disabled Upon Arrival: Eugenics, Immigration, and the Construction of Race and Disability, a compelling examination of the spaces, technologies, and discourses of immigration restriction during the peak period of North American immigration in the early twentieth century.Through careful archival research and consideration of the larger ideologies of racialization and xenophobia, Disabled Upon Arrival links anti-immigration rhetoric to eugenics—the flawed “science” of controlling human population based on racist and ableist ideas about bodily values. Dolmage casts an enlightening perspective on immigration restriction, showing how eugenic ideas about the value of bodies have never really gone away and revealing how such ideas and attitudes continue to cast groups and individuals as disabled upon arrival.

The Workhouse: The People, The Places, The Life Behind Doors:

In this fully updated and revised edition of his best-selling book, Simon Fowler takes a fresh look at the workhouse and the people who sought help from it. He looks at how the system of the Poor Law - of which the workhouse was a key part - was organized and the men and women who ran the workhouses or were employed to care for the inmates. But above all this is the moving story of the tens of thousands of children, men, women and the elderly who were forced to endure grim conditions to survive in an unfeeling world.

5. LGBT+ Social Theory/History:

Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution:

Covering American transgender history from the mid-twentieth century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events. Chapters cover the transsexual and transvestite communities in the years following World War II; trans radicalism and social change, which spanned from 1966 with the publication of The Transsexual Phenomenon, and lasted through the early 1970s; the mid-'70s to 1990-the era of identity politics and the changes witnessed in trans circles through these years; and the gender issues witnessed through the '90s and '00s.

Transgender History includes informative sidebars highlighting quotes from major texts and speeches in transgender history and brief biographies of key players, plus excerpts from transgender memoirs and discussion of treatments of transgenderism in popular culture.

6. Canadian Indigenous Theory/History:

The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America:

Rich with dark and light, pain and magic, The Inconvenient Indian distills the insights gleaned from Thomas King's critical and personal meditation on what it means to be "Indian" in North America, weaving the curiously circular tale of the relationship between non-Natives and Natives in the centuries since the two first encountered each other. In the process, King refashions old stories about historical events and figures, takes a sideways look at film and pop culture, relates his own complex experiences with activism, and articulates a deep and revolutionary understanding of the cumulative effects of ever-shifting laws and treaties on Native peoples and lands.

21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality:

Since its creation in 1876, the Indian Act has shaped, controlled, and constrained the lives and opportunities of Indigenous Peoples, and is at the root of many enduring stereotypes. Bob Joseph's book comes at a key time in the reconciliation process, when awareness from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities is at a crescendo. Joseph explains how Indigenous Peoples can step out from under the Indian Act and return to self-government, self-determination, and self-reliance - and why doing so would result in a better country for every Canadian. He dissects the complex issues around truth and reconciliation, and clearly demonstrates why learning about the Indian Act's cruel, enduring legacy is essential for the country to move toward true reconciliation.

Indigenous Relations: Insights, Tips & Suggestions to Make Reconciliation a Reality:

A timely sequel to the bestselling 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act - and an invaluable guide for anyone seeking to work more effectively with Indigenous Peoples.

We are all treaty people. But what are the everyday impacts of treaties, and how can we effectively work toward reconciliation if we're worried our words and actions will unintentionally cause harm?

Practical and inclusive, Indigenous Relations interprets the difference between hereditary and elected leadership, and why it matters; explains the intricacies of Aboriginal Rights and Title, and the treaty process; and demonstrates the lasting impact of the Indian Act, including the barriers that Indigenous communities face and the truth behind common myths and stereotypes perpetuated since Confederation.

Indigenous Relations equips you with the necessary knowledge to respectfully avoid missteps in your work and daily life, and offers an eight-part process to help business and government work more effectively with Indigenous Peoples - benefitting workplace culture as well as the bottom line. Indigenous Relations is an invaluable tool for anyone who wants to improve their cultural competency and undo the legacy of the Indian Act.

7. Toxic Masculinity:

Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era:

One of the headlines of the 2012 Presidential campaign was the demise of the white American male voter as a dominant force in the political landscape. On election night four years later, when Donald Trump was announced the winner, it became clear that the white American male voter is alive and well and angry as hell. Sociologist Michael Kimmel, one of the leading writers on men and masculinity in the world today, has spent hundreds of hours in the company of America's angry white men – from white supremacists to men's rights activists to young students. In Angry White Men, he presents a comprehensive diagnosis of their fears, anxieties, and rage.Kimmel locates this increase in anger in the seismic economic, social and political shifts that have so transformed the American landscape. Downward mobility, increased racial and gender equality, and a tenacious clinging to an anachronistic ideology of masculinity has left many men feeling betrayed and bewildered. Raised to expect unparalleled social and economic privilege, white men are suffering today from what Kimmel calls "aggrieved entitlement": a sense that those benefits that white men believed were their due have been snatched away from them.

Happy reading, everyone. ♥

#ugh this took forever but you're welcome #it's actually good stuff take a look :3 #social sciences #sociology #history #literature #recommendations #feminism #disability studies #black studies #immigration theory #toxic masculinity #indigenous theory #lgbt theory #future reference #my recommendations #intersectionality

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kitreadsbirdmen · 5 years

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An Encounter with Duality

An Analysis of Birdmen Flight 048′s chapter cover

As the current arc kicks into high gear, the flock gathering new allies left and right in their search for the 7 Wings, the reintroduction of a former ‘foe’ brings things to a satisfying start. Fiona has had a remarkably rocky start with our main cast so when Takayama sweeps her away into the front of their mission as a pivotal ally, we are left with only one panel– a context-less chapter cover following her cliffhanger addition to the cast– to make sense of the moment and further define her role in the narrative. What’s more, this scene is depicted in such a manner, utilizing allusions to two notable works from Western Artistic Canon, that it comments on the nature of the most elusive and important character yet: Takayama Sou. By modeling the scene of Fiona’s encounter with Takayama after Marianne Stoke’s 1900 painting Death and the Maiden, while simultaneously presenting a portrait depiction of Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa in the background, Tanabe illustrates a conflicting duality of good and evil resulting ultimately in ambiguity. By first drawing visual comparisons between this cover and the named alluded works, the respective analysis will inform the deeper implications of this scene and the characters involved.

A Demonic Invader:

Death and the Maiden depicts a young woman’s late night encounter with a winged being clothes in black and raising a hand to her alarm. This motif of pairing a symbol of purity and life, such as a young woman, with such an apparent opposites as the embodiment of death was common in Renaissance paintings, exercising the fragile relationship of these two dichotomies. We see this painting invoked in the above cover, Takayama approaching Fiona in her bed, as death so does to the girl. Fiona’s pose emulates Stoke’s Maiden, holding the blanket up to her chest with an expression of alarm. Even her elaborate fashion sense permits her to wear a dated night gown that resembles the Maiden. The almost contrived presence of feathers from Fiona’s down pillows invoke the feathered nature of Stoke’s death– a detail that Tanabe’s Seraphim can’t achieve by nature of their powers. Takayama’s looming pose paints him as Stoke’s death angel easily, while also hearkening back to the ominous associations the public granted him early on in chapter 6:

Malignantly painted, Takayama becomes this force of nature, feared by men and notably, this young girl.

The context of the encounter is paradoxically more positive than presented. Takayama seeks out Fiona to complete their ensemble and prepare for the grand mission of gathering the 7 Wings. Whereas it can be assumed that Stoke’s painting illustrates the injustice of a young girl’s brush with death, Tanabe’s cover works as a positive force in the narrative, moving the plot along in an agreeable direction and liberating the girl from Eden in hindsight. Yet the overwhelming tone of an uninvited presence, consuming Fiona’s space, covering her in the ominous black of his wings, and eliciting her apparent surprise, tells the audience at first glance that this is a potentially sinister moment. It aligns with the constant ambiguity of Takayama’s actions to date, questioning his intentions and his motives to the point of frustration.

There is a foundational sense of duality in Stoke’s painting that isn’t properly translated to the cover, but felt in the deeper analysis. While acting as an inevitable force of nature, Death hold out its hand in gentle reassurance. This is something that Takayama does not mimic, but by virtue of his heroic actions and pacifying moments prior to now, we are reminded of his capacity for genuine good that belies the ambiguity of his actions.

A Divine Guest:

While a noticeable feature in the background of the scene, the identity of the portrait is one of importance. Best visualized in the volume release of the chapter cover, the audience glimpses a small section of a greater work:

(picture courtesy of @hiurasouji )

From the distinctive sunbeam’s the portrait was identified as a cropped version of Bernini’s famous statue, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. Observe:

This statue, completed in 1652 and resting in the Roman Catholic church Santa Maria della Vittoria, depicts a scene from an autobiographical text, penned by the female subject of the work, a nun named Teresa of Avila. The episode denotes her religious euphoria during an encounter with an angel

I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron’s point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it. It is a caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God, that I pray God of His goodness to make him experience it who may think that I am lying.

Chapter XXIX; Part 17, Teresa’s Autobiography

The notable parallel here revolves around yet another winged being visiting a woman. The differences put Takayama in comparison to not an ominous force of nature but a divine being of great power and purpose. Unlike the Stoke’s painting, this encounter is at face value a strikingly good and joyful thing. It serves to thus paint Fiona as overwhelmed with the otherworldly power and mission of her visitor. An appropriate reaction to Takayama’s unfathomable presence that she earlier remarks. Though it can be said that Fiona’s parallels to the painting are diminished in the nature of the cover’s framing. By cutting off the portrait to only show the arm of the visiting angel, space and composition restraints aside, the metaphor is weakened. Takayama’s connections to divine forces are as abundant as his more sinister comparisons.

This final page to chapter 29 invokes the same style of religious lighting as the Bernini statue while placing Takayama in a messiah role to the public. Ominous features notwithstanding, what is a remarkably ‘good’ visit from an angel proves with an inlaid duality that it is just as thematically gray as the Stoke’s painting furthering Takyama’s ambiguous alignment.

While an autobiographical excerpt, the symbolic nature of the nun’s divine encounter that Bernini depicts implies an undeniable sinister nature to the event. Teresa’s episode makes note of the angel’s spear, which appeared to be “thrusting at times into [her] heart” and blanketing her in “excessive pain” that paradoxically turns to the titular ecstasy of the encounter. It is no accident that the spear in the portrait is what is most clearly seen in within the cover, highlighting this contradictory sense of pleasure and pain, violence and good will, with the actions of our Takayama.

An Overwhelming Moment:

There is an argument to be said that Takayama is clearly acting on the agency of some unknown power. The allusions to those forces have the potential to work beyond simple catalysts for tonal reception. In regards to the actual plot elements at hand this cover serves to give us insight into Fiona’s emotions. The ambiguity between the two allusions paints a sense of uncertainty with Takayama and the present mission. It also serves as a potential reasoning for her clear attachment to him. Before this moment, Takayama interacts with her two seprate times, both in negative and hostile contexts. The first time is after Eishi Awakens and he performs a Force Link.

This is an act that is clearly distressing to Fiona, leaving her crying, begging her innocence to him, all with the lost agency of her wings forcibly sprouting. She leaves this scene with a sense of understanding of Takayama, noting the unfathomable nature of his mind and the newness of the emotions he felt through Eishi. Later on he again engages her in a similarly hostile manner:

(dont mind me just doing the work of god dear fiona)

This hijack that he does is the definition of invasive. These two moments then get topped off by the bedroom raid making the audience question her emotional state. It is apparent during this chapter and the next that Fiona doesn’t bond well with the other Seraphim but instead clings to this serial offender of her agency.

and then later she only permits Takayama to touch her shoulder:

(minor post 049 spoiler)

And this seemingly contradictory behavior I feel is justified in the context of the cover of flight 048. By connecting her to the subjects of these two works, her complex relationship with this force is explained. Teresa’s experience with the angel is overwhelming, while also serving to affirm her faith. The Maiden’s encounter with Death is a commentary on the inevitable nature between the two. The fear and reverence are two parts of the same the same coin and the duality of Fiona’s encounters paint her relationship with Takayama with the broad strokes of religious worship or natural comprehension.

In the end we are left with the great mystery of Takayama, a character that exceeds the labels of good and evil while acting in the stark presence of the protagonists. The use of Bernini and Stokes work in one depicted scene proved to emphasize this and ally Takayama with further connections to greater powers. And within the more present understanding of the story the cover enlightens the audience with a backdrop for this confusing relationship so quickly formed between Fiona and Takayama.

All in all we ask ourselves:

why u so fukin confusing takayama?

This was written on 7/5/17 when the chapter was released in the Japan. After so much waiting, it was finally translated and I can post this. This mainly reflects my perspective at the time and is in now way influenced by spoilers.

#birdmen #birdmen analysis #flight 048 cover analysis #birdmen meta #forgive this for egregious mistakes

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errantabbot · 5 years

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Sunyananda's General Guidance on the Stages of Awakening

Generally speaking Buddhists, non-dualists, and mystics of all sorts spout off quite a bit about “awakening,” and uphold it as an amorphous, yet identifiable destination on the trajectory of spiritual practice. Very rarely is awakening clearly identified, let alone its path. This lack of clarity has contributed to the origination, and proliferation of an infinite variety of practices and disciplines that subsist only through their vague pointing toward a reality that is “somewhere over there,” called awakening.

In my own practice, I have engaged innumerable disciplines in a number of mystical faith traditions, and have in the course of these experience been disillusioned by the number of these practices that clearly do not point toward any of the obscure tenants of awakening as it is frequently alluded to. I have therefore sought to discern what is awakening really? Is there a concrete term that we might use to bring clarity to this experience, or attainment? And along these lines, I have sought to identify perennial stages that various traditions point one toward, which progressively reveal the spiritual summit known as awakening. What I have discerned is that there are approximately six stages of awareness and experience that when fully engaged, build upon and grow from one another into what we might term awakening, which I suppose could be appropriately termed the “Realization of Transcendent Wisdom.”

In general we may say that the six stages begin with the Dawning of Metacognition, which births the Experience of Interdependence, which stewards the Arising of All-Enveloping Compassion, which propels the Persistence of Equanimity, which allows for the Curation of Cause and Effect, which yields the Expression of Non-Attachment, which summarily presents as the Realization of Transcendent Wisdom (Awakening itself).

The Dawning of Metacognition is assuredly the first stage on the path. It is really the primary objective of meditation, namely to distantiate from our sense of self, that is the small “I” that typically leads us around. This separate perspective to the thinking mind is born of the realization that the possessor (seemingly the “I”) cannot simultaneously be the possessed (the thoughts, opinions, ideas, brain, body, and even soul that the “I” all casts as “my”). While at first a great sense of unknowing and confusion can and often does arise at this realization, when this unknowing is gently held in meditation, gradually a clear sense of witness arises that observes the machinations of the mind formerly known as “I.” This sense of witness does not identify the mind or its functions then as a substantial self, and does not take on such a mantle itself, rather this sense of witness is a process that does not come to be conceptually amalgamated. Should such an amalgamation occur, it precludes the actual dawning of this first stage of awakening that is termed metacognition. The mind is particularly good at creating illusions to prevent the self from being distantiated. A great amount of practice is generally needed for an authentic experience of the metacognitive witness, and even more effort must be put into sustaining then, this unamalgamated process.

As a practitioner becomes firmly settled in this newly dawned metacognition, a natural progression stemming from continued intentional awareness, that is, the metacognitive awareness’ ongoing witness to both (seemingly) internal and external conditions and phenomena is the Experience of Interdependence. This stage is particularly difficult to identify under the banner of a single term, as it is indeed quite expansive. To experience, or perceive interdependence is to become aware of the insubstantiality of not just the self, but of all things. Reality is insubstantial in as much as it is unfixed, constantly moving, coming both together and apart in a constant flux. In fact reality is so unfixed, and so in motion that nothing really moves, comes, or goes at all. This seeming dichotomous conundrum is only resolved when it is left to be as it, witnessed rather than defined. To witness such a reality is to experience interdependence, and thus sunyata (absolute reality itself), which may also be termed the ground of being. In many spiritual schools (especially neo-advaita etc), this stage is considered to be awakening itself, however this is not so. The direct experience of interdependence is but a step, albeit a particularly large and life-altering step, but a step none the less on the path toward awakening.

It should be noted that Christian mystics have given us a particularly important turn of phrase that describes a common experience that is frequently encountered somewhere in the midst of these first two stages, and that is “The Dark Night of the Soul.” While not an absolute certainty, many people experience a great sense of grief around finding the self, and reality itself to be insubstantial. All of the rules that a person has built up in their minds about the world and the way it works in the course of a lifetime tend to be simultaneously broken in this process, and when not prepared for such a thing, the profound unknowing that is so essential to awakening can be experienced as profound loneliness, darkness, and loss. Luckily though, as the Lankavatara Sutra states “things are not as they seem, and nor are they otherwise.” While reality is undoubtedly shaken in the process of awakening, reality indeed is unmoving, and no student of the way has ever in fact been separate from reality as it is- most have just done an awful lot of daydreaming on top of it, it is in fact these dreams that are being illumined and shed, thus we are awakened.

Somewhere along the way of identification with the small “I” falling away, and the insubstantiality of reality being revealed in its interdependence, comes the Arising of an All-Enveloping Compassion. This is indeed the antidote to any “dark night of the soul” experience, which arises still in the absence of such an experience. All-Enveloping Compassion shares a root with small-minded narcissism, therefore as identification with the small “I” falls away, so too does any appendant and latent self-admiration, as it becomes recast as limitless compassion for all beings, and experiences. In the experience of interdependence we find that not only are we insubstantial, but so is everyone and everything else, and in our shared non-being our capacity to love anyone is transformed into an impetus to love everyone and everything. A true arising of this All-Enveloping Compassion comes too with an inability to hate- this doesn’t mean an inability to grow angry, or to become frustrated, but specifically an inability to hate. This inability may be understood in examining a quote from the Roman playwright Terence who once famously wrote "I am human, and I think nothing human is alien to me." From a true place of witness to reality as it is, of which we and all are a part, no-thing, no matter how saintly or heinous is foreign to us, and where there is suffering we can only then know sadness, empathy, and compassion, not hatred. Compassion does not equate to condoning, but perhaps may be said to stem from understanding. This empathetic understanding, which can be called compassion is the very seed of the Transcendent Wisdom that the present schema terms awakening.

The natural bedfellow of All-Enveloping Compassion is the Persistence of Equanimity. Witnessing and being with reality as it is (radical acceptance), and being foreign to no experience we find that just as reality is ever oscillating and thus still (perfect in its “as it is-ness”), so too are we as seeming microcosms of reality, or more accurately reality’s self-awareness. As reality is ever in a state of equanimity, that is, of no hesitation or hindrance, it is natural then that as the metacognitive witness rouses “us” from our daydreams that we too come to embody such stability in our individualistic expressions and experiences of life.

It should be said here, that the ongoing practice of awakening at any level is that of integration between the seemingly absolute, and seemingly relative aspects of reality, experience, and life. The metacognitive witness comes to uphold each of these stages perfectly, however, the small “I” largely is just a collection of sensory reports yielding to cause and effect. In other words, the small or relative self is largely governed by habitual energy and observed behavior (which is why, for instance precepts centering around consumption, mental and physical exist). Not being identified with the small “I,” one option is to simply let it run amuck, unchecked and unhindered, however, this is an incomplete awakening. When the small “I” truly integrates the All-Enveloping Compassion of the previously examined stage, it naturally works to alleviate even relative suffering, that seemingly near and seemingly far (personal and other), and thus is metered by the process of the metacognitive witness.

The following chart sorts each of the stages of awakening into a primary orientation, with the final stage of the Realization of Transcendent Wisdom holding a unique, integrated (terminal) position. The initial stages of awakening are experience oriented and pertain to the realm commonly identified as absolute reality. The last stages before awakening are expression oriented and pertain to the realm commonly identified as relative reality. The stages between the two seeming polarities are transitional, and are easily categorized as one or the other, absolute and relative, experiential and expressional. In reality, each of these stages is unfixed, and insubstantial, as are their seeming orientations (as their merging, or integration into Transcendent Wisdom would suggest). That said, this categorization may be helpful in navigating and understanding the general feeling and energy of the stages of the awakening process.

This brings us to the Curating of Cause and Effect. While former stages seem to largely be interior or absolute oriented and experiential, this stage is assuredly also expressional. The curation of cause and effect is where the metacognitive witness most clearly meets the unidentified, or distantiated small “I�� and appears to become directive. However, the metacognitive witness process, being impersonal cannot actually direct anything but the awareness pertaining to it is, itself, a cause with an effect. The cause, in this case, is small “I” transcendent awareness effecting the small “I’s” seemingly relative process, through being informed (aware) of subsequent stages (2-4, especially). A natural yield of metacognitive awareness and witness is profound insight into what we may call “karmic ripples,” which when met with All-Enveloping Compassion, for instance, inspires the habit of karmic control, or curation for which the capacity to do so has ever been present, if covered up or even ignored.

The final stage in the process of awakening, which must occur before integration and awakening itself may be rendered is that of the Expression of Non-Attachment. The Third Patriarch of Zen, Sengcan once wrote “The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.” Absolutely, this is no problem- the metacognitive witness has no preferences, nor is it capable of any. However, the relative, small “I” functions only by them. When these two fully meet and mingle, it is not that preferences fall away, but that attachment to them does. Non-Attachment (to views, experiences, people, places, and things etc.) arises in summation of all of the foregoing stages, in that it is the only possibility when one comes to be able to perceive and uphold multiple views of reality simultaneously. The futility then, and harm of strong opinions and ideas is illumined through awareness of the multiplicity of reality, and deference to the cogs of reality, as opposed to those of ideas, is birthed.

As Lao Tzu is thought to have said: “…The Master leads by emptying people's minds and filling their cores, by weakening their ambition and toughening their resolve. He helps people lose everything they know, everything they desire, and creates confusion in those who think that they know. Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place.”

~Sunyananda Baba

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wisdomrays · 5 years

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People of Action and Scholarly Ones

QUESTION: What are the lessons today’s believers should draw from the following Divine message:

“Believers should not go forth to war all together. But why should not a party from every community of them mobilize to acquire profound, correct knowledge and understanding of the Religion, and warn their people when they return to them so that they may beware (of wrongful attitudes)” (at-Tawbah 9:122).

ANSWER: God Almighty first reveals that it is not correct for all believers to simultaneously go on a military campaign and take part in war. Then He states that a party should stay behind to gain insight into the spirit of religion and that when their people come back from different fronts, these learned ones should guide them with fair exhortation, feed them with religious knowledge, and teach them what they should know; this is because those people who engaged with the enemy during warfare may have failed to receive the religious education they need.

State of the learned ones and success

In the early period of Islam, since believers told people the truth, and represented and expressed justice, they faced attacks by the antagonists of religion. In such a situation, believers could not say to the enemies coming to exterminate them, “Come on, let us sit in the mosque and discuss first.” Even if they did, those enemies, who were fixed on grudge and destruction, would have tried to demolish that mosque and bury the believers therein. In order to stand against such demolition, they fought to protect their chastity, honor, religion, home, and flag.

After the demise of the noble Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and during the time of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, may God be pleased with them, similar problems emerged and Muslims had to engage with enemies in different places. During the time of Caliph Abu Bakr they had to fight on eight different fronts in order to repress the cases of apostasy in different tribes. Besides, the Sassanid and Roman empires, which were the super powers of the time, also had their eyes on Muslims. Since they accosted Muslims at every opportunity, Muslims had to fight defensive wars against them in different parts of the world.

In such a situation, had everyone attended war without any exception, there would have been a serious gap in terms of religious education. In the verse mentioned above, God Almighty commands that a group of people should stay behind for scholarly purposes in order to compensate for the lack of knowledge in those who return from war. Thus He pointed out that Muslims must definitely retain their learned state and attain the horizons necessitated by the conditions of their era. If believer fail to attain such a state and horizons, it is not possible to stand against attacks on different fronts anyway.

Cultural envoys

As for the conditions of our era, when knowledge and power of discourse came to the fore, continuing to exist as ourselves will be possible by means of the power of knowledge, pen, and discourse. Therefore, the devoted souls who are the cultural envoys in our time should take their values to different parts of the world—not with weapons and brutal force, but with knowledge, wisdom, love, tolerance, and goodness. The way of peace and love opens the way that leads to hearts, whereas brutal force causes grudge and hatred to rise from the dead. For this reason, unless you remain under invasion and have no any other way but to fight, no solution should by sought through force. As for the issue of using force, it should be evaluated within a perspective of defense or eliminating an inescapable danger.

It is for this reason that the most important duty to be fulfilled with respect to Islam and humanity is going to the four corners of the world, taking our cultural values there, and in the meantime benefitting from different patterns and colors wherever we are, as far as they do not contradict our essential teachings. By coming into contact with different people in the places they go, the devoted souls will both serve as honorary representatives of our cultural values, and they will receive the beautiful sides of those cultures and present them to their own people. However, as they will be predominantly busy with their pursuits of peaceful action, they may not be sufficiently nourished in terms of knowledge and spirituality. Then, it is necessary to edify individuals well-versed in the values of our spiritual heritage, who know our essential sources better, and thus who will help those in the field of peaceful action be nourished as is necessary. Those who undertake the responsibility to deepen in correct and profound knowledge and comprehension of Islam should constantly flow like a pure freshwater spring, nourishing the altruistic souls running in the field, who should in return take what they will from that source and complete their scholarly equipment.

Scholarly ones open to both physical and spiritual disciplines

By referring to acquiring “profound, correct knowledge and understanding of the Religion,” the verse points to the fact that those who stay behind need to be equipped with knowledge pertaining to faith, Islam, and to ihsan, or perfect goodness. Together with that, the sound functioning of these values, their easily being welcome by a society (perhaps of a very different cultural background), and their being liked and valued, depends on correct discernment of non-religious realities and rules as well. Therefore, besides religion, it bears much importance to master the natural sciences, which constitute the basis for most modern sciences. It is important to carry out research in this respect, and behold appreciatively the creation displayed in nature.

While learning religious disciplines on the one hand, modern sciences should not be neglected either. He pointed out that a student’s endeavor would soar only when these two are found together. Excluding one of these two will mean leaving the other devoid of wings. One should neither make concessions from learning religious disciplines, which are the light of the heart, nor ignore modern sciences, which are the light of the mind, reason, and judgment.

In addition, this verse emphasizes the importance of love of knowledge and research. Therefore, one must make very serious efforts in order to master both the religious and modern sciences, and remain like a “student” until the end of their life. The Arabic word for student (talib) means “seeker” of knowledge. No matter whether a person studies religious disciplines or modern sciences, if that person is utilizing the essences distilled from those studies for the sake of knowing God and maintaining a sound balance, then that person will be treated as a true student or seeker of knowledge. So what does such a treatment mean? As the Messenger of God stated, God Almighty makes the way to Paradise easier to one who sets forth demanding to acquire knowledge.

Seeking knowledge is very important and the benefits a scholar can bring to society are great. Thus, one’s society is responsible for supporting seekers of knowledge and doing what they can for them. It is very difficult for someone dedicated to knowledge to devote time for anything else. Accordingly, some Islamic scholars stated that even if they wear expensive clothes and the threshold of their door is made of gold, it is still possible to give alms to seekers of knowledge, because the vitality of a nation depends on such mastering of knowledge. If this cannot be done, the nation will collapse and disintegrate. Due to this stagnancy, some cracks emerged in the Islamic world in the fifth century after the holy migration. With the recession in the 13th and 14th centuries, a complete break down and disintegration happened. We have not been able to straighten up since.

Dignified contentment and remaining under obligation

In response to people’s support and care, seekers of knowledge must do their best in terms of being worthy of such kindness and must not waste a second of their time. Through very serious planning, division of labor, and a discipline of mutual helping, these seekers must be completely focused on this task. They must devote all of their energy to the task so as to be deserving of the people’s regard for them—even if that means sleeping only four hours if necessary and devoting twenty hours of the day to studying. Who knows? When they study with such seriousness, maybe God Almighty will grant them in two years what another person can attain in ten years.

Incidentally, let me share how I feel about one issue: I feel heartbroken for those who go abroad for a PhD, but cannot finish that in even ten years. While the dire need of our country for qualified people is obvious, God will call them to account for wasting so much time. Time is the greatest capital for a human. If a person has taken such a path once, they should persevere, exert their brains, make use of all arguments they can make use of, benefit from all sources they can, and if possible, they should even finish their PhD before the time determined for them.

I wish to underline one more point concerning scholarly ones: Dignified contentment is a very important principle for those dedicated to scholarly pursuits, with respect to the honor of both knowledge and learned ones. Actually, the path of the Prophets is also based on this essential. In many verses of the Qur’an, it is stated that they said,

“I ask of you no wage for that (for conveying God’s Message); my wage is only due from the Lord of the worlds” (ash-Shuara 26:127).

In this respect, scholarly ones should not be obliged to anyone if possible, in any phase of their lives—neither while they are students, nor when they become teachers, or teacher of teachers…

May God forbid, if one does not have this feeling of dignified contentment, and if that person carries out certain tasks for the sake of some returns, such as becoming a manager, director general, MP, minister, or prime minister, then such a person cannot be saved from being obliged to other people. Unfortunately, the concessions they make on account of being obliged will not only cost them dearly, but cost their nation as well. In this respect, those who engage in scholarly pursuits must arrange their lives in accordance with the principle of dignified contentment. They must use the means of their fathers if they can, or they must make a modest living with their own means, if they can. They should live frugally, never becoming obliged to anyone and never having to make concessions.

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coreapologetics · 5 years

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Why Is God Silent?

Dialogue with a doubter by Ron Davis

The following is a response to one of the many people God has privileged us with helping in the area of religious doubt. There is great anonymity in this process, and this blog does not violate this in any way. This person asked, “Why doesn’t God interact with me in an existentially substantive way?” This blog is a response to this question. I am sure there are many who can benefit from this response, so we have decided to make it available you in this format. If you need help in this area, or any other area of religious doubt, please feel free to contact us. We would love to help!

Why doesn’t God interact with me in an existentially substantive way? Many followers of Christ desire to have a real existential relationship with God that is consistent. You most certainly are one of these people and find yourself expressing, “I want to love you, but where are you?” I do not think this is unreasonable, nor do I think it is impossible to answer. I want to address this from a few areas. This is a very complex issue, and I want to try and cover it in a substantive way in this response but also, at the same time, begin a conversation that will continue.

This issue seems to be affected by the metaphysical concepts of reality and how “knowing” is even possible. I say this because you are struggling with accepting a reality where God exists but is silent, and the best we can hope for is agnosticism. The alternative explanation also troubles you because Christian theism is absurd without a personal relationship with God — a concept that seems to elude you at this moment. In other words, a correspondence with reality (as defined by Christian theism) and a plausible correlation to the world you experience seem to be in opposition (or at least disjunctive). Thus, the question has to be asked: can we really know with precise certainty that true existence, and knowing/comprehending it, is something to be grasped? Within this framework/discussion, certainty is as much existential as it is intellectual. For instance: you are 100% certain that you have anxiety/confusion over why God does not existentially relate to you on a more regular basis. This certainty is as much an existential concept for you as it is an intellectual one.

Consciousness demands an interaction and explanation of reality that requires confidence in our senses, cognitive abilities, etc., but it also requires our senses and cognitive abilities to be connected to an objective referent. Since we do not have one outside of our senses and cognition, the idea of exhaustive, 100% certainty is more of a straw man than an actual pillar of cognitive and/or faith related concepts of reality. I have come to embrace the idea that I can be certain that I exist and Christ, the resurrected Lord, is my Savior. This certainty is existential, i.e., peace of God, forgiveness of sins, joy, etc.; and it is also intellectual, i.e., the rationality of Christian theism, claims of Scripture, evidence (scientific, historical, anthropomorphic), etc. When I engage both of these, the most reasonable response is: yes, I truly exist and Christ is the impetus of this admission and the Truth by which I correspond to reality and correlate to the world (physical, emotional, spiritual). So, for me, 100% certainty is exhaustive inside of the proper faith framework. Outside of these parameters, what certainty can anyone have? Thus the beauty of the gospel: the brokenness of the world that brings about your anxiety over these issues has found its remedy in the person of Jesus Christ who came for one purpose: to redeem mankind and the world. From our discussion, you seem have experienced this redemption and have hope in Christ and the potential perspective that you, to a 100% certainty, not only exist but have value in God through Christ.

If the former is accurate, it requires admission of the value of humanity, even a single human, to be part of the redemptive expression of biblical concepts, i.e., God cares for mankind because of the redemptive work of Christ. The problem lies inside of the expectations you have for a relationship with a God who “loves,” has made himself “known” through natural and divine revelation, but seems to be hiding himself from the very ones that he claims to love and be reconciled to through Christ. So…let me make a connection to the previous discussion about “knowing” to the concepts of what is known by engaging the parameters of transposition. I would describe transposition as a way of life by which knowledge comes downward to us through sensory experience, i.e., we gather information from an existential and intellectual process providing lower level knowledge that connects to higher level experiences and/or concepts. For instance, you are reading this email because your eyes see organized funny-shaped objects that your brain has assembled into meaning. These objects were introduced to you as lower level knowledge that transposes into higher level understanding. Thus, all communication/learning takes place within this process, i.e., “knowing” is a fluid reality and not a static one. It seems reasonable to conclude that the the experience of knowing through sensory perception is a reflection of a principle that operates in the spiritual realm. Modernity did more than bifurcate these two realms (natural/supernatural), it also produced the desire within humanity to do so. (Maybe this is evidenced throughout history, but it seems to be more prevalent in post-enlightenment epistemology.) God does not share this desire, and it is evidenced by the Incarnation. Jesus brought both worlds together in a way that had not been realized since Eden (pre-Fall). Agreeing with Jürgen Moltmann, “Embodiment is the end of all God’s works” (God in Creation, 244). This Word-become flesh expression of reality enabled the redemption of man as the seen and unseen worlds merge into the beautiful expression of divine humanity — a God-man who redeemed a fallen world and forever merged two worlds together. No wonder Paul exclaims that we are “in Christ” all throughout his writings. Thus, the miraculous advent of Christ in the Incarnation gives the fullest expression of transposition: humanity can become vessels filled with the Spirit of God allowing the acts of redeemed men/women to become nothing less than works of the Divine.

What does this have to do with the silence of God (divine hiddenness)? Everything. The coming of Christ, as the transpositional act of God for man, produced the vehicle by which the world can know the good news of the gospel. Is God silent? Is he hidden? I would like to answer this with another question: are we silent? This broken world that we find ourselves in required a redemptive act — an act that could only be carried out by the One who could unite both the seen and the unseen. The transpositional nature of the Incarnation is evidence of the “beyond knowing” concepts of the Divine, and we, as his followers and mouthpiece, will sometimes have a hard time connecting our lower level learning with the higher level knowledge of the redemption of man, the love of God, and, most importantly, the existential nature of our relationship with him. Why is this so hard for us to grasp in our post-enlightenment world? We have a tendency to let reductionism run rampant without recognizing it for what it truly is: a way of perception and, not necessarily, a way of revealing, i.e., is it not a method by which cognitive realities can be clearly defined but a informative process that engages a part of the equation but not the whole. I think it is impossible to grasp what our existential relationship with God should/could be by comparing it, reductionistically, to relationships we have with friends, family, etc. It seems more prudent to construct a concept of the hiddenness of God based upon the transpositional elements of our relationship with him. Maybe the silence of God is more about the epistemic failure of man than an existential failure of God. Agreeing with Alvin Plantiga, the epistemic environment of mankind is not functioning inside of the original design of God, i.e., we live in a fallen world. This provides a framework by which epistemic blindness can be a reality (of course we have sinful structures, noetic failure/blindness, human freedom that brings epistemic harm, etc.).

Maybe the silence of God is better described as the blindness of man, i.e., we have not positioned ourselves well to experience the existential presence of God. Is this because God is elusive and the road to experience with the Divine is a shadowy trail on the epistemic journey of existence? I would have to say, no. It seems better to conclude that we have, from a transpositional perspective, failed to connect the beauty and grandeur of God because we do not perceive the true benevolence of God inside of our own lack of being truly benevolent. Of course there could be a myriad of transpositional short-comings, and this is to be expected. After all, we live in a fallen world with a broken epistemic environment that will one day be redeemed, and the new heaven and the new earth will bring about what is so longed for — a return to an Edenic relationship with God. And this is all made possible by the redemptive work of Christ bringing hope to the world and the beautiful existential encounters with the Divine — even if they are remote, sporadic and seemingly fickle.

#religiousdoubt

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